Kate and Kurt's Not-At-All Excellent Adventure
by robbiepoo2341
Summary: Noh-Varr has noticed that something's up with the timestream on Earth. There are temporal anomalies everywhere, and this just can't stand. But when our Noh, Jubilee, Kate, and Kurt decide to make investigating this issue a double date, they find themselves in real trouble. For Kate and Kurt, that means a future filled with evil and a familiar, demonic in-law problem...
1. Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey Stuff

**Notes: Why, hello there! Fancy seeing you here :D We're still trucking forward with our 714 Marvel Universe, so if you haven't read Volume 13 ("Chance for Reunions") over on Canucklehead Cowgirl's profile, go ahead. I'll wait.**

 **This particular volume is going to be a rough ride and also comes with its own little side story, which we'll be posting soon as well. We just have to wait for the timing to be right for when the story diverges.**

 **After all, with the X-Men… interdimensional nonsense, time travel, weird timelines… we like for everything to be as complicated as possible in our little fandom, don't we?**

 **Anyway, without any further ado, here is Volume 14: "Kate and Kurt's Not-At-All Excellent Adventure"**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: "Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff"**

* * *

When it came time for Krissy's birthday, both Clint and Kate had gone all out with the purple. The party decorations and balloons had Krissy giggling madly as she and the bamfs tried to chase down the balloons that kept trying to escape them.

It took a while to finagle Krissy into sitting in front of her very purple cake, and when they finally did, she just looked at it for a second with a thoughtful look. "What?" she asked Kurt.

"It's for you," Kurt explained to her gently, scooting it a bit closer.

Krissy considered this for a moment, and when neither of her parents seemed to be stopping her from eating or touching the very pretty cake, she experimentally smashed one little fist into its side. And when no one got her in trouble, she looked around, giggled, and then climbed onto the table to see just how much smashing and messiness she could get away with, only laughing harder when no one did anything but take pictures as she got her hands, toes, and tail in the cake.

Peter _loved_ the whole thing and was clicking away like mad with his camera. "Go for it, Krissy!" he shouted out, which had her giggling harder as she got icing everywhere.

When Krissy had played around to her heart's content, she looked over at the other kids, who were giggling. "Fun!" she told the other kids, then looked at Elin and held out a handful of cake. "Ellie!"

Elin reached out to touch the handful of frosting and cake and stopped just before Charlie called out to her. "That's for Kwissy, Ewin," Charlie said. And though Elin had stopped already, she looked over at Charlie for half a second and dove into it with Krissy clearly out of spite, to Krissy's delight

When Charlie looked frustrated, Gerry skipped over and patted her shoulder. "They're silly. And little," he told her before he grinned Krissy's way. "Can I play?"

Krissy giggled and threw some cake at him in response, and he climbed onto the table to smear some icing over the fur on her forehead in response as she shook her head and laughed. "Ge-e-e-e-erry," she giggled, trying to make him stop, but that only had him smearing more icing over her face.

The whole mess got even cuter when Sying climbed up onto the table as well and tipped his head at Krissy. "Me too?" he asked, waiting until she nodded before he joined in the fun by smooshing a big handful of cake in Gerry's face.

Charlie let out a little disapproving sigh, but she really couldn't do anything about it — especially because Chance had climbed up to join the other kids. So, she climbed up as well — to get immediately hit with a glob of icing that Krissy pitched at her.

From there, it continued to dissolve into an all-out cake and icing war. The bamfs were no help, either, as they just joined in the fun, clearly playing favorites and smooshing anyone who tried to smear icing on Krissy. Eleanor and Dani were just watching the whole thing go down and giggling madly as Peter took more and more pictures and the adults in the room seemed to be trying to decide if and when they should intervene.

"I bet Uncle Spidey makes a whole album just from the cake stuff," Eleanor whispered to Dani, who giggled and nodded. "He _loves_ doing birthdays."

"Well, Krissy got _sweets_ ," Dani pointed out. "This was only going to go one way."

"For sure." Eleanor smirked, watching as the adults had apparently finally decided that it was time to try to clean up the kids.

Of course, this was easier said than done with the bamfs in the mix. Especially when three of the bamfs responded to Kurt's attempts to get them to stop by giving him icing-covered hugs on either side of his face.

Clint did his best to try to help too, but the kids knew an easy target when they saw one and dog-piled on him. When Kate tried to get them to stop, she too was soon covered in cake and giggling, sugar-high kids. And Peter was of course no help — he spent the whole time laughing maniacally and getting as many pictures of the whole thing as he could.

It wasn't until Natasha and K decided to get involved, both of them looking like they were _done_ watching the trainwreck go down, that there was any hope, as the bamfs just _scattered_ on seeing the looks on both of their faces.

Charlie tried to help when she saw the looks on the grown ups' faces. "Come on — no more fightnin," she tried to tell the others, and Sying, at least, seemed to listen — at least inasmuch as he _didn't_ shove the cake he was holding in her face now that it looked like she didn't want to play. Though he did throw it at Chance instead.

"You're done," Natasha informed Krissy in a tone that didn't allow for any argument, and the little girl's ears drooped a bit, but she nodded and muttered ' _fine_ ' in a very Kate-like half sigh.

When Gerry picked up his arm, K raised her eyebrow at him, and the little one simply stopped and gently set down the handful of mess and took a step back. "I think it's time to hose these kids off," K said, addressing the parents more than the kids themselves as she reached out to Elin, and the little one stepped gingerly around the minefield of frosting and cake to take her mother's hand.

"Water hose?" Chance asked as he started to grin. "Water fight?"

K paused and crouched down a bit. "Sprinklers and water balloons," K told him with a little smirk. "The squirt guns are around the corner — loaded up and ready to go."

"Aunt K is the _best_ ," Gerry declared.

Sying nodded his enthusiastic agreement. "Thanksyou, Grammy K!"

"Go play, little sparkly maple leaf," K told him with a little laugh. "There are enough water balloons ready for a full on war. But make sure Spidey gets on someone's team too. Can't leave him out."

He nodded and giggled as he toddled over to grab Peter by the hand. "Spidey play!" he informed Peter, and the little guy had such a grip that Peter really had no choice in the matter.

" _All_ the kids need to get hosed off," Natasha said, raising an eyebrow at Kate and Clint, who were both now very covered in cake and icing.

"C'mon, Better Hawkeye," Eleanor said, grabbing Kate's hand. "You can be on _my_ team."

"Can I be on yours, then?" Clint teased Dani, who stuck her tongue out at him and giggled but nodded all the same.

In a rush of giggling and squealing, all of the youngest kids — plus both Hawkeyes and Peter — ended up out on the lawn with the sprinklers running. Both Kate and Clint were showing the kids how to get the best throws — and Peter was just holding any kid who looked like they needed it upside down in the sprinklers.

By the time the water fight was over, everyone involved was plain tuckered out — and totally soaking wet.

"I think I need to dry out," Clint said to Gerry as he swept him up and then fell back in the grass. "Think the sun can dry me out? Little sunshine sounds perfect."

Gerry giggled and tried to copy his dad, spreading his arms and legs out wide, but he got bored lying in the grass and started to get a bit grumpy, rubbing his eyes with his fists until Jess scooped him up and started to say goodbye to the rest of the adults as he laid down on her shoulder and looked like he didn't want to leave even though he was definitely drifting off.

The other kids were drifting off as well, and Krissy decided to show she was done by running over to Logan and pulling on his arm until he picked her up before she just melted into his shoulder, apparently deciding he was a better pillow than the grass or her soaking wet mother. Her purple fur was dripping all over him, but he snuggled her as she yawned and patted his cheek contentedly.

Elin had gone the other way and had stopped in front of Kurt and stared at him, rubbing her eyes until he picked her up and teleported her across the lawn to a nice shady spot. The teleporting always got a giggle from her, though she was as worn out as the others and didn't last long, wrapped up in her towel and curled up on Kurt's lap.

Charlie had gone to her dad to get snuggles, but Chance seemed to still be determined to play despite how tired he was — until Sying seemed to decide that he was too tired to play with his friend anymore and straight up picked up Chance in a bear hug to get him to stop.

The whole display had Jubilee laughing as Noh rushed to go separate the boys, while Chance grumpily shouted at Sying that he "wasn't tired" even as Sying shouted right back "yes! Sleepy!"

Finally, all the kids were tucked away, and the adults more or less collapsed, tired out themselves. Kate found Kurt and nestled into his side with her head on the shoulder Elin wasn't lying on. "Where do they get all that energy?" she teased. "I fight crime for a living, and I am _wiped_."

"Laughing takes it out of adults, but fuels the children," Kurt decided. "Or you're just getting old."

She giggled and nestled in a bit deeper, her arm over both him and Elin. "If I'm old, you must be ancient," she teased him before she sighed. "This old lady needs a nap. And Elin has the right idea about the perfect space heater." With that, she settled in to at least pretend to sleep — so he was well and truly trapped.

It wasn't long, though, before Logan came their way with Krissy solidly asleep. "What say we make a trade?" Logan said low.

Kate peeked one eye open. "I dunno," she said with an impish grin. "We're pretty comfy."

"I see that, but K's about to pass out, and I'd like to get that one in some dry clothes."

Kate sighed dramatically but got up so that Kurt could finally move to gently hand Elin to Logan — and take Krissy in return. The little purple elfling snuggled right into his fuzzy cheek in her sleep, and he turned to kiss her forehead with a little contented smile.

* * *

"What's got you all frowns this morning?" Jubilee asked as she slipped into Noh's ship. She hadn't seen him at breakfast, and it had taken her a bit to track him down, but when she did, she found him deeply studying several holographic images at once.

"Something… has torn your reality," Noh said quietly, leaning over the readouts. "It's not uncommon, of course. Tears happen, especially with a reality like yours. America Chavez, for instance, tears through it regularly. But this…" He leaned forward. "This does not seem to be natural, nor does it look like her doing."

"Sooo …. What does it look like, and is it just a 'kinda weird and I'm not sure I like it' kind of thing or a 'things could get very bad' thing?" Jubilee asked, leaning into his side

He absently wrapped an arm around her for a moment as he frowned and thought it over. "It's a localized tear, but I'm seeing ripples flowing across your world," he said. "Minor temporal anomalies ... you'd likely think you were only experiencing what you call _déjà vu_. But they're spreading, and fast, and to other worlds."

"So whatever it is, it's getting worse," she surmised. "Well... at least it's not on our anniversary." She gave him a little smile. "For a change."

He broke into a smirk at that and leaned over to kiss her. "Yes, it was a pleasant surprise to have a quiet one of those," he agreed. He kissed her again before he pulled one of the readouts over for her to see it. "I've pinpointed the epicenter of the tear. It seems to be in Australia."

"Oh," she said before she let out a low whistle. "Well... I wonder if Gateway has been using that bolo of his again."

"Who is Gateway?" he asked interestedly. "I don't believe I've met him."

"He's an Australian guy. Mutant … Aborigine," Jubilee said. "Oh, and he has the ability to bend time. Time travel. That kind of thing. Whips a bolo around his head in a big circle and has a tendency to try to fix things that are wrong with the time stream. I don't think I've ever heard him say a single word, though." She was mimicking the motion, but stopped when she saw the blank look on his face at her odd actions.

Noh nodded thoughtfully. "Well, if he tries to _fix_ time, I doubt he is the cause, but perhaps he can help us address it," he said.

"Just don't expect him to actually _tell_ you anything unless it's like … totally the end of the world or something."

"Then we'll have to hope he doesn't tell me anything," Noh agreed. "Though I'm sure I can figure it out for myself."

"He's talked to Logan a couple of times," Jubilee said. "I'll bet he knows how to find him at least."

"Then we'll ask him," Noh agreed. He paused and kissed her forehead. "I think it would be lovely to take a trip with some of our friends, don't you?"

"If you can get him to _leave_ ," she pointed out. "He's all … super protective and growly. Like K and Nat _need_ him to be a pain in the tush."

Noh laughed. "Then perhaps we can go with some of our other friends. I'm sure Kurt and Kate would love to get out for a while

"That sounds good, actually. Australia and Logan are not a great mix, historically speaking. That's where I _totally_ saved his life when we first met," she said with a smile before she turned with a bounce and half skipped to the door. "Let's go shake them up!"

He laughed and followed her out, then scooped her up for a quick kiss and set her back down on the ground. "If I didn't think this anomaly might be a problem, I'd suggest a trip just the two of us," he whispered low in her ear. "But those two can respect privacy."

"They can't afford not to," she reasoned. "And I think it won't hurt to give Logan and K extra time with extra kids. You know. For the future," She giggled to herself and rubbed her hands together. "Yes. This is coming along nicely."

He laughed outright. "You act as if you have anything to do with their family planning."

"Like those two could plan anything," she said dryly.

He laughed and kissed her again. "Yes, what would they do without you?"

"Die miserable and alone a thousand years from now," she shot back in an instant.

"Well, then it's good they have you," he agreed. "Now — you said Logan would know where we could find Gateway?"

"He might. It's worth a shot anyhow — though Gateway has a tendency to show up exactly where and when he's needed. So we can ask, but if he's involved — he'll come to us."

"Lovely. Then we need only find our friends and make sure that we pack appropriate clothing for the after-our-victory celebrations," he said.

* * *

The talk with Logan wasn't as helpful as Jubilee had expected, but she had still hoped. it did, however, give them a general direction to shoot for rather than simply 'the Outback'. What was more shocking was the simple fact that K and Logan didn't seem to think for very long before they agreed to keep an eye on Sying for Noh and Jubilee.

"You need to take a break and get out," K had told them. "And considering that we're about all you can fall back on for babysitters without asking Luke Cage? Go. Have fun. Just don't forget where we are."

Jubilee grinned at her for that one and actually made her way over with a bounce before she wrapped K up in a hug and kissed her on the cheek. "Best. Grandma. Ever."

"Shut up," K replied with a smirk as Jubilee flitted over to kiss Logan and Sying, who was pulling on his beard.

"You gonna shave it _now?_ " Jubilee asked, grinning like a cheshire cat.

"Actually, yeah. K asked me to get rid of it this morning," Logan replied. "The ponytail too."

Jubilee giggled and grinned at K again. "Is that so?"

"Yes, I know. You're welcome. Ororo is shaving my head today too," K said, shaking her head as Noh gave her a quick peck on the cheek in thanks and the young couple headed out.

Kate and Kurt had also been thrilled with the idea of going out for a little trip — and it took Annie all of five seconds to rush over to volunteer to watch Krissy while they were gone, scooping the little elfling up into her arms with a wide smile as she rubbed noses with Krissy.

"Miss-Ammie," Krissy giggled before she booped Annie on the nose.

"That's right, you clever little girl," Annie agreed, booping her right back as she melted all over the little one, and Kurt and Kate just shared grins at the scene before them.

"If she gets to be too much of a handful, you can always invite Clint and Natasha," Kate suggested as they were headed out. "Krissy has a very healthy respect for Nat."

Krissy nodded very solemnly and leaned over to 'whisper' in Annie's ear. "Nat baby."

Kate chuckled and reached over to fluff her daughter's hair. "That's right. Nat's having a baby," she said, her eyes twinkling at Krissy's understanding of why 'Aunt Nat' was a little testy sometimes.

"You'll be good for Miss Annie, _ja_?" Kurt asked before he kissed Krissy's forehead.

She giggled and nodded. " _Ja!_ "

There was one last round of little giggled hugs and kisses, and then the two young couples climbed into Noh's ship to head for Australia and figure out just what it was that had Noh so concerned over reality and the timescape.


	2. Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Future

**Notes: Hey, man, Peter Parker is the best baby photographer in the world, okay? ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Future"**

* * *

When Noh's ship touched down in the Australian Outback, the group of X-Men on board were surprised to find that not only did they very quickly have company ... but it was not at all who they were expecting.

The Jeep that drove up — with the Old Logan at the wheel — was full of the younger versions of the X-Men, and Laura hopped out of the front seat as soon as they arrived with her arms crossed and a little frown on her face as she met up with them.

Still, Noh gave the group of them a friendly wave on their approach, his head tipped slightly to the side as he looked them over. "Have you seen the same damage we've noticed, then?" he asked curiously. "I'd imagine this close to the epicenter of the issue, you can see the results of the tear in reality even without advanced Kree equipment and knowledge. Perhaps we can compare notes?"

"We can compare, but I am not sure what can be done to _fix it_ ," Laura said tersely, though she waved them over. "Hop in, we will take you there."

The group of X-Men shared a look before they simply shrugged and climbed in to join the rest of the little group — as Kate made a point to introduce herself to the young version of Jean, since she'd never met the older version, and she was a little curious. Though she was definitely a little surprised when Jean casually mentioned a date with Laura as one of the times they'd seen the tear in time in action. Their waiter had disappeared through it and reappeared twenty minutes later without realizing any time had passed. Had it not been for Laura's ability to smell a lie — and Jean taking a peek in his head — he most definitely would have been blown off as a horrible liar.

It didn't take them long to get to the coordinates Noh had determined to be the epicenter. But even without Noh's scans, they would have known they were getting closer. Time seemed to be going wild in sporadic shifts that nobody could quite predict. It would go from night to day with no warning, and the older Logan at the wheel was swearing up a storm at the fact that sometimes even the road would shift — suddenly much older and torn up, or suddenly further back in time before it existed.

"This is getting to be just like the road trip with Barton," Older Logan grumbled through his teeth as he swerved yet again to miss a giant rock that had just appeared.

Kate laughed outright at that and shook her head with a teasing smile. "No, your driving is much better than his," she giggled.

"No shit. It ain't hard to be better than a blind, mostly deaf lunatic," he countered without looking her way, still grumbling to himself. "But he was the one at the wheel last time. Go figure."

But when they reached the center of the distortion, they were surprised to find that there were no time shifts, no changes. "The eye of the storm," Kurt muttered quietly as they came to a stop in the surprisingly still desert before he looked around for a moment. "Do we know yet what's causing this?"

Noh frowned over his readouts as the younger X-Men shifted a bit and glanced at each other. "Something is interfering with my scans," he said with a frown. "We must be too close to whatever is happening for me to get a clear understanding."

"Yeah, well," the younger Scott said with a bit of a sheepish look, "that's probably because… we think it's _us_."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jubilee asked with her nose scrunched up.

"Well, I mean, it's not like we exactly _belong_ here," the younger Bobby piped up. "In case you haven't noticed."

"Not that we don't like it here," the younger Jean added with an unmistakable smirk Laura's way, that was returned with a troublemaking smile from Laura.

Before the older X-Men could say anything about that theory, though… all at once, the wind picked up — though not in a straight line. It started as if it was blowing in all of their faces, regardless of where they were standing, and then it shifted so that it seemed to arc all around them in a giant circle. Jubilee's mouth dropped as she looked up at Noh. "Gateway!" she called out, looking for the figure of the little old man, not surprised in the least when she finally spotted him nearby looking absolutely furious while he spun his bolo over his head.

"Somehow, I pictured him differently from your description," Noh replied, with the slightest of smirks as he looked over at the newcomer.

The light around them flickered as if the sun itself was going out, and the little group of X-Men felt their feet leave the ground as they got caught up in Gateway's vortex. Color and light slipped together in the timestream before, very suddenly, Kurt and Kate hit the ground hard. No longer in the Outback.

And conspicuously alone.

"Little warning might have been nice," Kate grumbled as she brushed herself off.

"With Gateway, there is never a little warning," Kurt told her.

"Where are we, anyway?" Kate asked, looking around herself. They definitely weren't in the Outback. It was some big city, though she didn't recognize it, since it seemed to have more or less have been destroyed in some kind of battle. And she wasn't sure quite what day it was, as the sky was more a gray than either sunshine or nighttime.

"I'm not sure if where or when would be a more appropriate question," Kurt said. "Clearly, Gateway wanted to show us something that needs attention."

"I swear to you, I'm going to teach you all to communicate if it's the last thing I do," Kate grumbled.

Kurt had to laugh at that one. "Believe me, _liebchen,_ if Gateway speaks, it's never good news."

"Then I'll get him a cell phone and he can text it," Kate said with a smirk, still taking in the surprisingly empty streets around them. The whole place felt very cold, and she suppressed a shiver at the sudden change in temperature from desert to… wherever this was.

Kurt raised an eyebrow at her. "I'd love to see where you suggest he keep it."

"Good point," she had to concede before she took both of his hands in hers to wrap his arms around her for a little warmth. "Okay ... so _when_ are we, oh experienced X-Man mine?"

"I have faith in your detective work," Kurt said with a smirk. "How would a clever girl such as yourself determine when we are?"

"Well, we could find a newscast. Or if we _had_ to, we could find a paper. If those are still around. Or ... if we're in the past? I guess those would be around?" She wrinkled her nose. "I've decided I hate time travel."

"We all do," Kurt agreed. "But I guess this rounds out your X-Man portfolio."

"Great. Then let's go home. Checked off the checklist — goodbye now," Kate said, still with his arms around her. "I did _not_ dress for gloomy cold weather."

But for as much as they would have liked to get back to the promised vacation they were supposed to be taking… it was clear they needed to figure out what was going on. The two of them made their way through the still quiet streets, looking for something that would give them a clue — but the first sign of life that they found was definitely not what they were expecting and had both of them drawing their weapons when they saw the huge demon.

"We are definitely not in the past," Kurt said half under his breath as he pulled her into an alleyway.

She frowned and peeked around the corner one last time before she dropped her voice to a whisper. "There's only one. We can _so_ take him. We'll make 'blast from the past' literal."

"I don't think that's the best idea without knowing what's happening," Kurt said.

"What's to know? There's a demon. We should stab it," Kate said. "And if there are more, we'll stab them too." She looked up at him with her head tilted to one side, clearly confused as to why he wasn't just jumping into action.

"My beloved, I hate to let the words slip from my lips, but you've obviously been spending too much time around Logan and K if your first thought is 'we should stab it'. That is not the way to handle time travel," Kurt told her. "We need to assess first. Stab later."

She let out a sigh and peeked around the corner again, but the demon had moved on to a different street. "Fine," she muttered. "But I still think we could've taken him."

"We definitely could have taken him," Kurt agreed. "But if it draws more in ... we don't want to do that."

She let out a sigh and nodded before she fitted a grappling arrow to her bow and smiled his way. "Well, like my fellow Hawkeye always says ... sometimes you just gotta get a different perspective," she suggested before she fired the arrow and rope up to snag on the top of the nearest building. "How 'bout a little rooftop overlook?"

"You're so dramatic," he said with a grin. "I'll meet you up there."

She grinned as she grabbed hold of the grappling rope and scaled the building, though of course, Kurt had teleported up to the roof well ahead of her and held out a hand to pull her up to his level once she got closer.

"Who's the dramatic one?" she teased.

"It is my _job_ to be dramatic," Kurt replied looking half insulted.

"Right. How could I forget?" she laughed as she pulled him into a quick kiss that ended a bit faster than she would have liked when they both heard the unmistakable growl of a demon nearby. When they spun around, there were several big, ugly creatures headed their way.

"I… don't think we can take them _and_ do your 'casual observer' thing," Kate muttered as she grabbed hold of Kurt's hand, and he teleported them across the city to get them out of there.

But to their surprise, more of the brutish demons started to pour out the moment they reappeared.

"This isn't working how I'd hoped," Kurt said as they took off running, finally finding a means to break into a church, and the demons chasing them went past them. They were backing away from the broken door slowly, still staring at it and in shock at what was happening around them, when a voice broke the stillness of the church.

"Take another step and I'll run you through." The voice sounded young and feminine and very, _very_ angry. "The only reason you're not dead already is I know you're not demons, or you couldn't come in here — but I'm not feeling really forgiving right now, all things considered."

"We didn't mean to intrude," Kurt called back. "We're not from … here."

"Clearly," the voice responded, seeming to echo off the ceiling.

"Can you please tell me what year it is?" Kurt asked, trying to locate the owner of the voice.

"What the futz kind of question is that?" was the response. "What are you — aliens? Shapeshifters?"

"A valid theory, considering," Kurt said, though he had to frown at the phrasing. "No, we're not aliens or shapeshifters. Just … lost in time, apparently."

"Well, get _un_ -lost, and … just... " The voice trailed off, losing some of its edge as the girl was clearly thrown off by the idea of time travel. "Why should I believe you?" she finally snapped out. "You come to New York wearing _those_ faces, and I'm supposed to just… take your word for it?"

"I'm afraid we can't change our faces. That's just what they are," Kurt replied. "Nor would I change them if I could."

There was a long pause as the girl seemed to consider that. "Okay," she said at last. "I don't know who trained you up, but this ... this is the best act anybody's come up with so far. I'm almost convinced."

"It's no act," Kurt almost growled out, his tail switching behind him. "And who are you, that hides in the shadows? You have us at a bit of a disadvantage."

For a moment, there was silence in the church, until finally, the girl appeared, still partway hidden in shadow as she was crouched near the ceiling, though they could see a tail switching almost in exactly the same way as Kurt's was. "Don't think you can draw me out with no consequences," she warned. "You're surrounded."

Kurt glanced around the church at the broken pews and dusty candelabras. "Surrounded? By whom?"

"I'm asking the questions, okay?" the girl said sharply. "Like who you _really_ are. Because you are _not_ Nightcrawler and Hawkeye. You're just not."

"Yes, we are," Kurt replied, frowning. "Why would we lie about something like that?"

"You wouldn't be the first," the girl replied, though she had come un-crouched and started to walk down the side of the wall, still keeping to the shadows as best she could. "I know your boss would love to find us."

"My boss?" Kurt asked, his eyebrows raised. "I have no boss."

"Unless you count Scott, but we only let him _think_ he's in charge," Kate added.

"We don't count Scott," Kurt said in a tone just to Kate. "That's ridiculous. If Logan were here, he'd slap you upside the back of the head for even suggesting such nonsense."

"He'd be right too. I was so wrong. Clearly it's Mrs. Boss we answer to," Kate said with a little smirk.

"Maybe _you_ do," Kurt teased in spite of their situation.

"Shut up, both of you," the girl half growled out. "Don't… don't do that."

"What are we doing that is so wrong?" Kurt finally asked in a tone that was much more stern than Kate was used to hearing from him. "Aside from coming into a church — which should be a haven for those seeking sanctuary?"

"Don't _act_ like them!" the girl said, finally stepping a bit from the shadows so that Kurt could see the full force of very wide yellow eyes that looked extremely upset. The girl was about fifteen, and she looked much like Kurt had at her age — but with a distinct purple color to her fur. She had two rapiers in her hands and was practically shaking with rage. "Don't _do_ that."

" _Mein gott,"_ Kurt half whispered as Kate just stared open-mouthed. "Elfling?"

" _Don't call me that_ ," she snapped out. "That's not yours."

"No, it's Logan's," Kurt breathed out. "He gave it to you the day you were born."

Kate blinked at the girl in front of them. "Krissy?"

The girl shifted her stance, clearly torn as she looked over the two of them. "Just ... just stop that," she said. "I don't know what new bad guys that _creep_ found that can come onto holy ground, but just _stop_."

"You look so much like your mother," Kurt said, totally ignoring her warning; he couldn't help but grin at her.

"No, no, she looks like you," Kate corrected him with a similar grin.

"You're just adjusting for the fur," Kurt waved off. "That face is _yours._ "

" _Stop it_ ," Krissy demanded.

" _Liebling,_ what have I done to offend you so?" Kurt asked. "Tell me so I can adjust."

The girl looked between the two of them, the raw emotion clear over her every feature, though she hadn't lowered her swords. "You can't be them," she said simply. "So don't try to be. Don't — that's one step too far, and as soon as I figure out how you're doing it… I'll kill you both."

"You don't want to do that," A new voice echoed out behind them as a smaller, dark-haired girl seemed to appear from the shadows not ten feet behind them. "They're not lying, and their scents match up. From what I remember, anyhow."

As Krissy looked even more torn at the revelation, Kate spun to face the new girl. "Who're… _Elin_?" she guessed when she saw the unmistakable family resemblance. She looked just like K, but with Logan's piercing blue eyes and black hair.

"Why are you here?" Elin asked. "And how did you even _get_ here?"

"Some guy named Gateway. I don't know — I've never time traveled before," Kate said, her eyes still wide, though she'd found her voice and seemed to be having an easier time talking to an older Elin than her older daughter.

"Of course. X-Men issues. You've missed out on a whole giant mess," Elin said, relaxing her body language significantly before she glanced to Krissy, rolled her eyes and closed the gap to give both Kurt and Kate a hug. "Don't pay attention to her yet. She's in shock. I'm glad you're here. Maybe you can help us fix this. Dad always said you could work miracles."

Kate took the slightest step back after the hug as she looked over the young teen version of the toddler she was used to seeing. "Your dad… past tense?" she sputtered, glancing over at Krissy.

"Not _that_ kind of past tense," Elin replied with a little frown, though she looked away for a moment. "Not yet anyhow. Just ... he's not … reachable."

"And… everybody else?" Kate asked, but before Elin could say anything, that seemed to finally break the dam for Krissy, and the young girl dropped both swords with a clatter as she rushed for both of her parents to pull them into a hug, simply falling apart into both of their arms.

Kurt and Kate both tried to hold her as best they could, clearly concerned by her reaction but unwilling to question anything for the moment but comforting their daughter.

"We should probably ... go a little sublevel for the rest of this conversation," Elin said after a moment, walking backward with her chin tipped down. "The demons can't come in — but they can peek in the windows, and the last thing we need is for you two to be spotted."

"Right," Krissy said, straightening up the slightest bit and wiping at the wet fur on her cheeks, though she didn't seem to be willing to let go of Kate and kept her in half a hug as Elin led the way down some stone steps deeper underground.

Kurt and Kate shared a look over the top of Krissy's head as they made their way further in. Whatever this place was, one thing was clear — their daughter was hurting, and that couldn't stand.


	3. Battle-Weary Teenagers

**Notes: Oh yeah, Kate and Kurt's curiosity is absolutely piqued. But as for what happens in this timeline... you'll have to wait and see...**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: "Battle-Weary Teenagers"**

* * *

Kate was doing her best to do what she could to make Krissy feel better as they made their way sub-level in the church, since clearly their appearance had set something off. She had her arm wrapped almost as tightly around Krissy's shoulders as Krissy was wrapped around her middle, and she absolutely didn't want to let go of the upset young woman.

"I've decided whatever future this is — I hate it, and we're fixing it," she told Kurt over her shoulder.

"That would be awesome," Elin called back. "But … we need to figure out what Gateway wants you to do before you can go back."

"Well ... sounds like an investigative job for Bishop-Wagner Investigations," Kate said with a little nod. "Why don't we start with — why the heck are there _demons_ everywhere?"

"Simple enough," Elin said as she paused at a closed door at the bottom of the stairs. "Azazel took over." She didn't give them a chance to process that tidbit before she pushed the door open and stepped through it, though she did hold it open for them to pass by.

Both Kate and Kurt were wide-eyed, and even more so when Krissy nodded to let them know that, yes, they'd heard correctly. " _How_?" Kurt managed to ask, but Krissy looked a bit hurt and just shook her head.

Elin looked between the three of them for a moment. "Maybe we should tell you in a more private setting. There are a few others down here in hiding and … we need to keep our distance from Charlie if we can."

"Charlie's here too?" Kate asked, perking up a bit. "What about the others?"

"Well, there are a few," Elin said with a little nod. "Miss America is helping keep things running for us and continually reminding us to live up to our reps. Which is kind of a pain, if you want me to be totally honest." She turned to Kate with a little smirk. "I blame you for befriending her." She led the way down a hall before she opened a door to the side that led to a quieter area still. "Chance is here, mostly taking care of Charlie. Jubilee, Noh, and Sying … there are others that made it, but we haven't heard from anyone in a long time."

Kurt and Kate nodded along to every name they heard — equal parts relieved to hear the names of those who were alright and worried about those whose names weren't mentioned.

"What's happened to Charlie?" Kurt asked softly. "Maybe we can help."

The two girls shared a look, and both of them shook their heads in unison. "She's an empath," Elin explained. "So all this misery … she can't handle it. That's why we're so far underground."

"Chance tries to take care of her — but it's hard getting any optimism down here," Krissy admitted, then quickly glanced at Kurt. "Not that we don't try."

"She does best with Chance nearby because he _stubbornly_ refuses to admit that we're in as bad of shape as we are," Elin said.

"That sounds about right," Kurt said with a small smile as the group of them made their way deeper underground. They hadn't made it much further, though, before they heard a low hiss that sounded like a ticked off Noh — though the person who stepped around the corner was still not tall enough to pass for his father.

"What did you _bring_ here?" Sying demanded.

"Do you _really_ think _I'd_ bring back someone not on the level?" Elin replied, her hands on her hips as she squared off with him. "Me?"

"Then _what_ did you bring? You know the last time we had a Skrull here, that turned out badly," he insisted, hands on his hips and looking very much like his mother.

"And I wasn't the one to do that _either,_ was I?" Elin shot back, though her narrowed eye look was certainly from her father. "It's the real deal. Different spot in the timeline. So just … knock it off."

He stayed where he was and glared at her for a moment longer before he finally let out a sigh and looked to the newcomers thoughtfully. "So ... that's really Aunt Kate?"

Krissy raised an eyebrow at Sying for a moment and indicated how curled around her mother she was. "Yeah."

"She passes the sniff test," Elin said seriously before she punched him in the shoulder. "Which is more than I can say for you. Take a shower."

He rolled his eyes at her. "Well, _someone_ has to fight demons while you two are out goofing around," he shot back.

"Yes that's right, nothing but ice cream shops and hair appointments," Elin replied with a fake bounce. "Come on — they don't know anything about what happened."

"Really?" He tipped his head at the two of them with a curious expression that looked very much like Noh. "Where are you all in the timeline?" he asked, almost as much to himself as anything else. "Neither of you are gray."

"I go _gray_?" Kate breathed out, offended.

Krissy laughed. "Only a little bit. You used to let the kids point out the gray hairs while we braided your hair, and you would get so _dramatic_ about every single one."

Kate had to smirk at the story, but that didn't stop the fact that her eyebrows were high up on her head. "Should I be concerned that that was way past tense? When did it _start?_ "

"You did say it was his fault," Elin offered as she pointed to Kurt. "No one argued it."

"Likely because it was a mutual problem," Kurt teased lightly, though he was also frowning. "You did say both of us went gray."

"Yes," Elin replied nodding her head once. "But yours was from the bamfs. _Obviously_."

"Obviously," he agreed with a little nod. He looked around at the small group of teens and shook his head. "Last time we saw you, we'd just celebrated Krissy's first birthday," he told them — both because he couldn't believe how much everyone had grown and to give them something to figure out how much time had passed.

"You've missed a few then," Sying said with a perfectly straight face.

"About fourteen years' worth," Krissy agreed. "So you guys're _way_ behind on all this."

"Why don't you tell us what happened," Kurt said. "And when it all seemed to have gone wrong."

Krissy hedged again, her tail switching nervously behind her. "We can — let's just sit down," she suggested, gesturing toward a more private area as she bit down hard on her lip. "It's really not too long of a story. Nobody knew he'd gotten back to Hell until he'd pretty much taken over the other side and was getting ready to take over Earth too."

As Krissy started to tell the story, Elin sat down next to Kurt and positively curled up into his side, hugging him around the middle as she rested her head on him.

"It — um — it was my fault," Krissy said in a rush, half hiding her face in Kate's side.

"No it wasn't," Elin argued in a way that sounded so automatic of a response that both Kate and Kurt had to pause.

"Yes, it was," Krissy said back just as quickly and in a resigned sort of tone that Kurt recognized.

"You're in a church. Quit lying."

"Take your own advice," Krissy shot back.

Elin rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. "She couldn't control her teleporting yet," she explained. "So. Not. Her. _Fault_ that Creepy Grampa had a spell put on her to bring himself closer or whatever so he could follow her 'port. It just happened."

"Then it wasn't your fault, _Prinzessin_ ," Kurt told Krissy in a low, comforting tone. Elin couldn't help but stick her tongue out at Krissy for Kurt backing her up.

"Yeah, but ... if he was around when you teleported, we'd have known about it," Kate reasoned, frowning as she thought it over.

But Krissy sighed and shook her head. "No ... he… he was working with Mystique. Everyone was so caught up in rescuing me from her — and I didn't even _know_ he'd been around when she was trying to force me into teleporting — and nobody knew he was involved." She frowned hard as she curled her hands into fists. "Believe me, if I'd known … I would have tried harder. I wouldn't have let him… Dad always told me about him, and I _knew_ there was a problem…"

"You're living in the past again, Krissy," Sying said quietly and sounding so much like his father that both Kate and Kurt almost did a double-take.

"I'm _supposed_ to be, stupid," Krissy said, sticking her tongue out at him. "They wanted to know what happened!"

"Then tell them — but don't wallow," he insisted, and she glared at him for a moment.

"Anyhow," Elin said, ignoring the two of them. "It happened fast. We all fought ... but ... we're the ones in hiding. So. You can see how well that worked out for us."

"When did this happen?" Kurt asked, his gaze on Krissy, who looked fairly miserable and still clearly guilty about the whole thing.

"About three years ago," Elin replied.

"Yep. Pretty awesome introduction to puberty," Krissy muttered darkly. "Most girls get the Talk. I get a visit from my grandparents that destroys the world."

"Oh my God. Can you be more dramatic, or is it something that comes from genetics?" Elin asked with a look of longsuffering.

"Perhaps it gets worse when she has both of them around," Sying said, smirking hard and clearly trying to keep a straight face.

"Obviously," she replied. "Lucky we're so level-headed."

Kate rolled her eyes at the two kids and then kissed the top of Krissy's head almost absently. "Well, it sounds like I'm going to have to give both of my in-laws what-for—"

" _NO!_ " Sying and Elin half shouted at once.

Kate actually flinched back at how insistent they were. "Woah, hey, chill out — it's okay."

"You can't go anywhere near them," Sying insisted. "Ever!"

Kurt and Kate glanced at each other, and Kurt settled into a very deep frown. "I think you'd better tell us more than just the scant details," he said pointedly, pulling Kate a bit tighter with the arm that wasn't holding Elin in a warm snuggle.

"I don't know what the rules are for this," Elin said quietly. "I don't know what we _can_ tell you." She looked up at Sying. "Maybe you should go get your dad."

"That's a good idea," Sying nodded, zipping off at top speed before anyone could say anything further.

"Just like his dad," Kate said with a little chuckle despite everything.

"Not exactly," Elin said, peeking up at her. "Mom's temper. Complete with sparkles."

"With dad's powers to boot?" Kate shook her head. "The terrible twos must have been _hell_."

"There were ways of dealing with him," Elin replied with a little smirk as she finally let go of Kurt and sat up a bit.

A moment later, Sying returned with Noh in tow. The Kree fighter was much older and even carried a few battle scars — which must have meant some serious injuries, considering his healing. But he broke out into the wider grin that they were used to seeing from him when he saw Kate and Kurt, and both girls scooted out of the way so Noh could simply scoop both of them up in a hug.

"It's been too long!" he said, all but crushing them. "I've missed you both!" When he set them back down, he was still grinning, and they could actually see his eyes shining. "Tell me — how did you come here? Where — and when? Did America bring you from another dimension? We've not had much success there, but she does try so hard."

Kate couldn't help but grin at the enthusiastic reception as she glanced at Kurt. "No, no — we're, well, time traveling, I guess. Fourteen years in your past, according to the kids." She looked over one of the deep scars on his cheekbone that ran down to his jaw. "We missed a lot, apparently."

"I don't know what we can tell them," Elin admitted. "And I didn't want to make it worse."

"Well, how did they get here?" Noh asked the group at large. "If it was an accident, we shouldn't risk it, but sometimes purposeful time travel leaves options."

"It was Gateway," Kurt told him.

"Ah." Noh nodded once and let out a sigh. "Well then, I think it's likely safe to tell them anything, my dear little sister," he told Elin. "Gateway, as I recall, has a way of… directing people. It's entirely possible he would like to prevent this timeline from occurring in the first place — and I for one would not be opposed to wiping it from existence for something far happier."

"Great. You can tell them then," Elin said with a nod before she wrapped her arms around her middle.

Noh let out a sigh and sat down beside the other adults in the room. "What is it you need to know?" he asked. "Fourteen years is a lot of information to cover, though likely you're only interested in the past three since Azazel took our dear Krissy and then took the world itself."

"How about we start with — can I just go back to our time and tie Kurt's parents to a meteor?" Kate asked.

"That's … not how Dad said Gateway worked," Elin said quietly. "But I love the mental image."

"See? She's on my side," Kate said before she reached over and ruffled Elin's hair. "New favorite niece."

"New?" Elin scoffed a bit. "Champion of all time."

"True," Kate agreed with a smirk as Krissy couldn't help but roll her eyes at both of them, still very much tucked into her mother's side.

"I don't know that it would be helpful to tie them to a meteor, seeing as that would kill Azazel," Noh pointed out. "And only start this whole thing much sooner." He let out a bit of a breath. "And as much as it frustrates me to say it, in this case, Mystique was a pawn. We didn't realize it at the time, but she had long been under his thrall. There was blood magic… if Ilyanna or Strange were still here, they could explain it better. I've never understood it, no matter how much Billy tried to tell me."

"Okay, that's good information to start," Kate said, nodding along, though Kurt's frown only seemed to be getting deeper and deeper. "So I'll tie _her_ to the meteor. And… let K feed the other one his tail. Repeatedly. Problem solved."

Elin shifted a bit and went to hugging her knees with a frown, and Krissy reached over to wrap her tail around her friend's hand. "That's probably not a good idea either, Mom," she said quietly. She glanced at Elin and dropped her voice a bit lower. "You and Papa told me about fighting Azazel plenty of times before … this all happened. The problem wasn't kicking his butt; it was keeping him … um... away from me." She dropped her gaze as her ears drooped a bit. "Sorry about that."

"You said there was some kind of spell?" Kurt asked softly.

Krissy nodded. "I mean ... we didn't know what it was at the time. I guess he got mad because I got hurt when some aliens came to cause problems... He said it was for protection, like when I was a baby, to 'protect his interests' or whatever, but ... it… wasn't. It was so he could find me later."

"Then we know how he got hold of Krissy, and how we was able to return to Hell," Kurt said slowly. "But surely the X-Men, the Avengers — we should have been able to stop him. What happened?"

"He had too much of a head start," Sying said bitterly, his arms crossed over his chest. He glanced toward Elin for a moment before he added, quietly, "And ... he didn't waste any time taking out the big guns."

"Everybody fought. Even some of the supervillains," Krissy explained. "You know — the ones that _didn't_ think it was a great idea to kiss up to the new guy in charge?" She looked annoyed for a moment before she just let out all her breath. "But we lost. And a lot of people died ... and a lot more were captured so Azazel could … be _entertained_."

"Do we know where they're being held?" Kurt asked.

"Some of them," Elin replied quietly. "You're supposed to be a the top of the Tower of London. Nothing dramatic about that _at all._ "

"He _is_ the drama teacher," Kate said quietly, almost automatically before she bit her lip, paused, and had to ask, "Am I there too?"

Elin met her gaze for a moment before she very slowly shook her head. "No."

Kate went very quiet at that and frowned, while Kurt looked even angier the more he heard. "What about Logan? And K?" he asked. "If we can find them, we can deal with my father easily enough."

"They're with Azazel," Elin said, dropping her gaze to the ground as her shoulders drooped as well. "All. The time. He took them out of the fight first."

"And now he, what, just keeps them around for _show_?" Kate asked with fire in her gaze.

"I'm not entirely sure what exactly he has them doing," she replied quietly.

Kurt's eyes flashed at that, and he let out a bit of a growl as he said, "Then whatever it is, we'll just have to put a stop to it."

"Where is the monster-in-law, anyway?" Kate asked. "If we can find him and your parents, that's a two-fer. Or three-fer. Whatever."

"You can't get close to him," Elin said. "Last time we tried, we had to fight mom and dad," Elin told her in a slightly shaking voice.

"In addition to several demons," Noh added. "That ... did not go very well."

"Didn't even get close enough for Azazel to pull out his sword," Krissy grumbled. "And I've been _practicing_."

"Don't need to get close enough if you have a bow," Kate said with a light, teasing smile Krissy's way, and the girl rolled her eyes.

"I swear to God you're a secret Barton," Elin mumbled.

"No," Kate said, glaring her way. "Clint _wishes_ he were as awesome as me." She looked around for a moment as she seemed to realize the lack of Hawkeyes. "Where is he, anyway? And Gerry? And my niece or nephew or whatever Nat had?"

"Running a resistance out west," Sying told her. "Fairly aggressive, but the flow of demons is a bit … intense in that area."

"Aunt Nat says she likes it that way," Krissy said with a small smirk. "At least… last time we heard from them, that's what she said."

"Is your little brother with them?" Kurt asked curiously. "Or is he running some other sect?"

Elin lost all the expression in her face. "He's dead."

"Oh." Kurt's eyes widened, his tail stilled, and he was completely taken aback for several long seconds before he simply pulled Elin into a long hug. " _Es tut mir leid_."

"There wasn't anything that would have stopped it," she replied as she snuggled in again, quiet and thankful to have a solid hug. "He hadn't gotten his abilities yet."

"That jerk went right for the school," Sying explained. "And… when it happened ... well, that's when he took Grammy K and Grampa Wolvie. When they were in shock."

"Where are they now?" Kurt asked in a low tone. He was still holding Elin tight, but his tone said that he was ready to make his father _pay_ for everything he was hearing. "If you can get me close enough — I'll 'port them both away."

"Yeah, I've tried that," Krissy said in a small voice. "It… did _not_ go well for me."

Sying nodded with a frown. "She wasn't able to go anywhere for months," he recalled.

"They need to get far enough away from Azazel that he can't control them," Elin said in a flat tone. "She couldn't hold onto them both and get out without getting very badly hurt."

"I'm practicing, though," Krissy said quickly. "I'm getting better every day."

"It still doesn't solve how to stop them from attacking everyone once you get them out," Elin pointed out. "It looks like they need a reset or … something."

"Well," Kurt said thoughtfully. "I've always found that dropping Logan from a building when he annoys me tends to reset things."

Elin looked up at him for a moment and then started to chuckle to herself. "I suppose that would do it. If we took some precautions and restrained them too. Just in case."

"Great. Sounds like a plan," Kate nodded. "We'll get them back, knock the sense back into them, and then we'll rescue — um — Kurt." She glanced at Kurt for a moment before she gave him a very obscene grin. "And then there will be two of him."

"Okay, you have optimism, so you're going to see Charlie right now," Elin decided. "But get your mind out of the gutter for thirty seconds, please. She is delicate and still too young for whatever you're thinking."

"No promises," Kate said with an impish grin, though she allowed Elin to take her hand and lead her off. After all, she was curious to see an _empathic_ Charlie, too.

….

Translation from German:

" _Es tut mir leid_." - I'm so sorry


	4. Battle Scars

**Chapter 4: "Battle Scars"**

* * *

Elin dragged Kate down the hall, turning several times before she paused to very gently knock on a door and crack it open a hair.

"I have a visitor that brings positivity," Elin called out as cheerfully as she could force herself to do before she pushed the door open a bit and pulled Kate in behind her. "Time traveling positivity."

Kate waved her fingers as she came in, though the smile felt a bit strained as she took in the scene in front of her. The young man kneeling beside an old cot looked _just_ like a young Cyclops. He was wearing torn-up jeans and a worn-out tee shirt, and he had the slightest scruff that Kate suspected was more the result of not leaving this room than anything else, as he looked like he hadn't slept in some time.

He had his sister's hand in both of his, and Kate was struck by how _small_ Charlie looked. She was curled up into herself, practically in the fetal position, and there seemed to be permanent tear streaks down her face. Kate glanced at Elin, who had on an unreadable expression as she coaxed Kate forward a bit toward the twins.

"Hey, Charlie," Kate said quietly, not sure exactly what she was supposed to do.

Chance, meanwhile, was staring at her openly. "You vetted her, El?" he asked over Kate's shoulder, and Elin responded with a _look_ and a nod. He almost smirked. "Sorry — had to ask. Protective little brother." He reached over to push back some of Charlie's sweaty hair. "You know I'm only admitting to being younger than you because you're not feeling good, right? Just you wait til you get back on your feet. Fifteen minutes, Charlie. It does _not_ count."

Kate thought she saw the ghost of a smile touch Charlie's expression for a moment as she gripped her brother's hand tighter, and she knew Elin had brought her there for her optimism, but she was having a hard time coming up with anything to say when she could see how clearly Charlie was hurting.

"What can I do?" Kate asked as she sat down beside Chance, and he scooted the slightest bit so that she could take Charlie's hand instead.

"Just be you," Elin told her simply from the doorway.

"You time traveled here?" Chance asked, staring at Kate almost as openly as she had been staring at Charlie. When she nodded, he almost laughed. "Right, yeah, of course you did."

"Is anyone around here going to tell me—"

"Why don't you tell her about where you're from?" Chance cut in, glancing toward Elin before he cleared his throat. "It's gotta be more fun than where we are right now. I mean… considering." He gestured around their underground surroundings.

Kate let out a breath at having been interrupted, but she had to agree, and she let a bit of a grin settle over her features. "Want to hear embarrassing baby stories?"

She thought she could hear Elin chuckling in the doorway at that one.

Kate sat back and put on her best smile for Charlie. "I don't know which ones your parents have told you, but I can tell you about your brother's first ever crush," she said, shooting a look Elin's way. If that girl was going to be so much like her parents, then she could take her teasing just like they would.

"Oh, not _that_ story again," Chance said, rolling his eyes, but he didn't do anything else to stop her, especially because Charlie's gaze was on Kate.

"So you know it?" Kate grinned at him crookedly as she leaned closer to Charlie. "See, there were some stupid things going on. Clearly not as stupid as all this stuff? But bad enough that Elin and her parents had to go into hiding. Only no one consulted Chance on this decision, and he was _not_ happy about it." She glanced over at Chance, who had an expression of longsuffering on his face that was so much like Scott's that she had to laugh.

"What?" he asked.

"Sorry. You're just… exactly like your dad," Kate explained, still laughing quietly to herself, though she only grinned wider when he seemed to take it as a compliment and straightened up a bit — and looked even _more_ like Scott.

Kate chuckled and shook her head before she turned back to Charlie and continued her story. "Anyway, Chance had made this _adorable_ finger painting just for Elin, and he absolutely _insisted_ that she had to have it for Christmas. So of course, Kurt took it to her, and she sent Kurt back with a video saying hello."

"Which he saved," Chance put in with that same tone of longsuffering. "For years."

"Of course he did," Kate said, grinning at him. "It was the cutest thing ever, and it totally broke every adult in the house, and you two were just _dripping_ sweetness." She grinned over Elin's way and all but cackled. "You should have seen the look on everyone's faces come _Valentine's Day_."

"I've heard," Elin said with a little smirk, though she was looking past Kate at Charlie.

Kate grinned and looked back at the curled up young woman. "And then Elin came back home, and the _kissing_ and the _hugging_ never stopped," she said with relish. "I mean, people say that Kurt and I are ridiculous."

"Well you _are_ ," Elin pointed out on her way out the door, and when Kate turned to try to tell her to stay — because she wasn't sure she knew her way back — she felt a slight tug and turned back to see that Charlie had a tight hold on her hand. The young woman didn't say anything, but her eyes were wide as her gaze swept over Kate's face.

"She wants you to stay," Chance explained, though Kate felt like that was pretty darn obvious.

"Right." She let out a sigh as she settled in. "Okay… why don't I tell you about when Krissy was learning to walk and kept tripping over her own tail? She still does that back in my time, by the way. She only just turned one."

Charlie gave an almost imperceptible nod, and Kate leaned forward with a sparkle in her eyes as she did just that. Chance settled down at the foot of the bed, grinning as he listened to her stories too, though with someone else taking care of Charlie, it wasn't long before the young man drifted off to sleep.

When Chance's head lolled onto his chest as he finally succumbed to sleep, Charlie glanced his way for a moment and let out a small sigh.

"He's a good brother," Kate said, interrupting herself halfway through a story of how Sying had tried to physically move Charlie someplace when she was being stubborn — which had not gone well for anyone involved but which was a very funny story all the same.

Charlie kept her gaze on Chance for a long time, though she kept Kate's hand in a tight grip, and Kate sighed as she wracked her brain for more stories to tell, finally settling on the first time she'd met Kurt. That was a good one, too.

* * *

With Kate tucked away with the twins, Krissy had attached herself to her father instead of Kate, seemingly content to stay curled up where she was. But word had apparently spread that Kurt and Kate were visiting — and the last two members of the little resistance group made sure to stop by and say hello.

Jubilee, of course, practically melted all over Kurt as soon as she saw him, wrapping him up in a hug so tight that he could hardly breathe. When she was done, she kissed his cheek and hugged him all over again. "Oh, I missed you!" she declared.

He held her at arm's length for a moment with a quiet smile at her enthusiasm, though he couldn't help but frown as he noticed that she, like Noh, had plenty of battle scars herself.

"And how are you, Jubilee?" he asked her sincerely as she shifted the slightest bit under his gaze.

"Just about as good as can be expected, I guess," she said, though from the tired look on her face and the way she kept hugging Kurt, he could guess that she was desperately missing Logan — and everyone else.

"Don't let her kid you, Nightcrawler. She's been a mess," said America Chavez as she also joined the group, a small smirk on her face as she leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed. "Real helpful, though. Piss off the Glitter Queen at your own peril."

"I did know that for myself, actually," Kurt said with a small smile before he tipped his head at America. She wasn't wearing the brightly-colored hoodies that she had been so fond of — though, for that matter, no one was wearing bright uniforms. He supposed that was simply a product of running an underground resistance movement, but it was still strange to see Jubilee without her yellow coat and America without her star-spangled getup.

"Noh asked me to check and make sure you're actually from the past and not just from an alternate dimension," she told him frankly. "Just as one last precaution." She tipped her head toward Jubilee. "Your husband is paranoid."

"And it's kept us all alive this long," Jubilee countered, and Kurt could tell from their tones that this was an argument that the two women had often.

"Sure, I guess I have to give him that," America said, waving her hand, though she was smirking the slightest bit. She took a second to revel in Jubilee sticking her tongue out at her before she looked to Kurt. "Noh said… he said that you brought Kate with you."

Kurt had to pause at the tone of her voice. He still had half an arm around Krissy, who had tucked into him like she was worried he might leave if he let her go, but he could feel himself growing tense despite his best efforts. When anyone in this timeline talked about Kate…. "What happened to her?" he asked in a low tone. "What happened to Kate in this future?"

America and Jubilee both glanced at Krissy, who frowned and looked down at her hands, her tail completely still behind her as she seemed unwilling to answer. Finally, America was the one to let out a sigh and run a hand through her now closely cropped, short hair. "She was captured with you," America said in a tone that Kurt had simply never heard from her before. "Of course she was — you two fought like hell to get Logan and K back. You and her and Cyclops and Jubilee, and…" She let out all her breath. "It was a good plan. Really, it was. Probably the closest we've come to getting K — she was down, we _had_ her. And then… it all fell apart."

Kurt watched America with a steadily growing frown. This was not the America Chavez he was used to.

When he hadn't done anything except to steadily watch her, America met his gaze for a moment and then looked away. "It was real recent, you know. I mean, relatively speaking. Little less than a few months ago when he finally decided to kill her." She took a deep breath, unable to quite meet his gaze. "You were there. The whole thing was public — we think partly to try and draw us out. Krissy and the other kids in this group…." America trailed off and looked toward the young girl who was half-hidden in Kurt's side. "That's part of why we split up. He knows if he gets his hands on the kids, he can lure in anyone else still fighting him. Better not to have everyone under the age of eighteen in one place. And Krissy being his granddaughter…"

" _Prinzessin?_ " Kurt asked softly even as he pulled Krissy that much closer.

"Jubes stopped me from trying to do anything stupid that would get me captured or killed," she confessed into his side. "Don't worry."

But that did nothing to stop the fire that was burning in Kurt's chest. He could feel the palms of his hands itching for the hilt of his swords, his breathing barely controlled, his lips pulled back in the beginnings of what would have been a truly terrifying demonic snarl.

America nodded quietly and tried to redirect when she saw the look on Kurt's face. "Your dad has a real flair for the dramatic — you know that?" When that got Kurt's attention for a moment, she leaned against the doorway with her arms crossed. "He's got a thing for public executions. Really painful ones too. When he got hold of Angel…" She trailed off and actually winced, and it struck Kurt that he didn't think he had ever seen her actually do that before. "Pretty sure it was more the principle of the thing. The visual, you know? But still."

Kurt shook his head, and for a moment, the words failed him as the pure and simple rage on hearing what his father had done to his friends and family surged through him. "I'll run him through myself if I can just get close enough to him. I only need a moment."

"Woah, hey, no," Krissy said quickly, shaking her head as she pulled on his arm. "You used to say stuff like that all the time, and it nearly got you killed several times — and got you captured too." She looked up at him, her yellow eyes wide and nearly pleading. "Don't do that."

He let out a sigh, and some of the anger evaporated, though it was more of an ember than a raging inferno when he saw the hurt in his daughter's eyes. Very suddenly, he found that he simply couldn't stand to see the way that she was looking at him, and he wrapped her up in a soft hug, pulling her head underneath his chin as he very gently kissed the top of her head.

"I swear to you, _leibling_ , I won't allow you to lose anything or anyone else," he promised as he held her tighter and let the embers beat warmer under his chest.

Jubilee and America glanced at each other and wordlessly agreed to give the two of them some time together. "I think Elin said Kate was with Charlie if you wanted to go say hi," Jubilee offered.

"Gotta clear it with Chance," America said with a little smirk.

"Like you aren't planning on tackling her," Jubilee said, waving her hand. "I'm pretty sure that qualifies as enough happiness for Chance to let you in." Her eyes sparkled the slightest bit. "Who knows — might even be enough to jumpstart your powers a bit more."

Kurt looked toward America in an unasked question, and she shrugged with her hands in her pockets. "It's easier to open portals when I've got the emotional intensity behind the physical punch to the barrier, yeah?" She gestured to the walls around them. "This place doesn't exactly scream 'ecstasy' does it? And I can't just run on rage all the time. I tried — it wiped me out."

"So go tackle yourself a Hawkeye. Betcha get enough energy to kick at least one star-hole in reality," Jubilee teased lightly, though it wasn't entirely a tease, as she seemed to be halfway ordering America.

"I… kinda want to see this," Krissy admitted with a bit of a smirk all of about five seconds after America had left, and Kurt had to smile at the troublemaking look on her face. She really did look just like Kate — but with his fur and powers.

Jubilee flashed her a thumbs up, and the three of them followed the now grinning Jubilee down the halls — though they knew they'd missed the initial hello when they heard a loud shout and a thump and arrived just as Kate was trying to push America off of her.

"What the _heck_?" Kate spluttered as Chance, startled out of his sleep, started to outright laugh at the scene, and the three in the doorway burst into wide smiles and little giggles as America pulled Kate to her feet only to pull her into a tight hug.

"Just shut up and enjoy the hug, Princess," America told her with all the sternness she could muster as she pulled Kate off of her feet until Kate, finally, in a choked-out voice, said, "America, I can't breathe."

Everyone who saw the display was grinning, but very suddenly, Chance stopped and whipped his head around to just… _stare_ at his sister — who was _smiling_. He let out a delighted, sort of disbelieving noise as he wrapped Charlie up in a deep hug, and Charlie smiled a bit more at that.

* * *

For the first little while, it seemed that most of the little underground group was content to enjoy having Kate and Kurt around. But the two visitors, on the other hand, seemed to get more anxious to get out and fight the longer they stayed there. It was the little things, like the way the kids were careful not to talk about Logan and K around Elin — even if she _could_ handle it; they were just like that. Or the way Krissy was never too far from Kate. Little things that added fuel to the burning rage at what Azazel had done to their world.

But aside from occasionally batting some demons away from their hiding place, the little group seemed reluctant to let Kate or Kurt do much of anything — until their 'advance scout' came back, slipping into the underground hideout almost entirely unnoticed.

Elin had only just glanced up and watched him as he went by before she returned to listening to the stories for a few more minutes. When there was a natural break in the conversation, she slipped away from her godfather and out of the room with Noh right behind her.

"Have you found his newest… lair?" Noh asked as soon as the door was closed behind him and Elin, searching for a moment for the right word to describe Azazel's living arrangements.

"Yes," Daken replied. "Amazingly, it's not too far from here. Maybe ten miles. Tops."

Noh frowned, and the two ferals in the room could practically _see_ his tactical paranoia kicking in. "And you're sure he doesn't know we're here? That's a bit close to be a coincidence."

"Noh, when are you going to trust me?" Daken asked as his shoulders slumped a little. "I'm not going to do a thing that would endanger my sister."

At that, Noh softened his expression the slightest bit as he nodded. "I know — really, I do," he assured Daken. "It's not _you_ I distrust. But you have to admit, it's a bit close for comfort."

"I made sure to set off a series of sodium bombs ten blocks the other way. I added a bigger secondary explosion that rained down holy water. Just to be a pain in the ass." Daken grinned at the memory. "I did, however, stick around to watch long enough for them to think the water was a good thing."

"I've told you how glad I am you are on our side, yes?" Noh said, chuckling despite himself at the mental image.

"It would be much easier if I had more, though," he replied, looking a bit more tired suddenly. "They found the priest I had stashed away on the south side. There's only a handful left in the city now."

"Well ... we might be able to ask our new friends for help there," Noh offered, though it was obvious the news had him frustrated as well as downright upset.

"I caught the scent," Daken said with a nod. "I'm going to assume it's on the up and up. And if it's not, I really don't care at this point. I just want to give it back to them."

"Apparently, Gateway sent them," Noh said with a sigh. "They are from fourteen years in our past, give or take a few months."

"Well, are we putting them to work or holding a tea party? I want to move on this before Azazel moves out." He turned to Elin. "And you need to stay here to keep an eye on the twins. As protection. I don't think Chance could get her _out_ if he was on his own, and the word is that Azazel still doesn't know where Cyclops is." He looked like he was trying to defuse her before she got angry, but she wrapped her arms around his middle and gave him a hug that he returned as best he knew how.

"Let's go tell the group what your master plan is," Elin said, though she didn't let him go.

"I think our… old friends will be happy to get out and get to work," Noh said as he held the door open for the two of them. "They've been incredibly mad — even if they don't show it around Krissy."

"Neither one of them has a poker face for shit," Daken argued. "But let's get the younger, more sprightly Nightcrawler in action anyhow."

When the three of them poked their heads in the room, Kate was in the middle of animatedly retelling the story of how she trained Scott to stop telling her what to do in her piloting simulations, which had Krissy shooting pointed looks at Chance the entire time and Sying politely pretending he wasn't laughing behind his hand. But Kate paused in her retelling when she saw who the newcomer was. "Oh, hey — I wasn't expecting you. No offense."

"That is the general response," Daken replied. "It's nice to see you … up and around."

"Yeah, that's the general response _I'm_ getting," she told him before she made a face and sighed. "So! Please tell me you've got something for us to do. If I recall right, things are always more interesting when you show up — unless things have changed."

"I do," Daken replied with a nod. "Before we get moving on it, though, I have a few fifty gallon drums I need your husband to bless. It does the most amazing things to these demons after they're caught up in my bombs." He smirked then looked at Noh. "You're not letting her out there, are you? He'd kill everyone here to get a hold of her again."

"Again?" Kate frowned and looked at the expressions on the others' face. "Lovely. What the futz did he do — or do I want to know?"

"You really don't," Krissy tried to say, but Daken ignored her.

"The general gist is that you're dead at this point in time," Daken told her frankly.

"That…" Kate looked around at everyone else and let out a very slow breath. "Actually doesn't surprise me, considering no one here has a poker face," she admitted in a much quieter voice.

"I'm surprised you didn't figure it out on your own, gumshoe," Daken said. "Or was that rumor false?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "It's not a conclusion you generally want to draw about yourself," she pointed out. "And as my husband will tell you, I like to live in the land of denial about some things."

"It's still a far cry better than having to serve the idiot," he countered.

She tipped her head his way in acknowledgement of his point. "Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. No offense, Kurt, but I think I'd rather just …. _not_ be stuck with your dad as overlord." She looked around with a bit of a sigh and a pout. "So I'm grounded then? That's that? Come on, I can do _something_."

"You can push buttons on the bomb's remotes," Daken told her. "Just have to wait for me to tell you when."

She twirled her finger in the air as she looked him right in the eye and said, in a dull tone, "Yipee."

"It kills more demons than anything else we've come up with," he countered.

"Then I should help you prepare it," Kurt offered, clearly stepping in before Kate could try to argue the point any further. He gestured for Daken to lead the way and looked over his shoulder at Kate. "Don't do anything terribly dangerous without me, _liebchen_ ," he teased her, and she stuck her tongue out at him in response, arms crossed over her chest.

"Who put _Daken_ in charge anyway?" she grumbled.

"He's so not _in charge_ ," Krissy said, pulling a face that was so much like the one Kate was wearing that the others in the room couldn't help but smile.

"He's the only one that's escaped from Azazel — more or less," Sying explained quietly.

"Well, 'escaped' is putting it a bit stronger than I'd put it," America said with a smirk. "More like he annoyed Azazel when he was one of his thralls because he kept turning up the rage too much."

"And annoyed would be putting it lightly," Jubilee replied. "Considering that his manipulations got far enough out of even Azazel's control that Logan managed to stab Azazel in the mess. He made the demon king's grip slip."

"He's lucky Azazel didn't just kill him right there," Chance muttered.

"He tried," Jubilee said as she crossed her legs as she settled deeper into her chair. "Turns out anger isn't the only emotion Azazel is capable of. The only thing that got him free was the fact that Daken had him quaking in his boots and none of the demons would approach him."

"So we listen to him? But he's not _in charge_ ," Krissy insisted.

Kate almost laughed as she reached over to ruffle Krissy's hair. "Of course he's not. No one is the boss of my little girl."

"He's not wrong, though," Noh said, and Kate had to raise her eyebrows at Noh, of all people, saying that about Daken. "If Azazel were to find out that you're here — even a past version — he'd kill all of us just so he could take you to that tower where he's got Kurt and do the whole thing over again."

"Yeah — we should also rescue my prince from his tower? Even if he's not _my_ prince, I mean… he is? But also…" Kate shook her head. "I hate time travel."

"It would be easier if we had Logan and K," Krissy pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah, one step at a time," Kate grumbled, leaning back. "Fine. I'll just stay here and tell embarrassing stories about all of you to Chance and Charlie while you're gone. I'll think of something really awful — just wait."

* * *

True to her word, Kate was halfway through telling the story of when Krissy shoved Sying into a puddle for trying to give her a baby kiss after her birthday party when Kurt and Daken peeked in on them. Sying looked properly mortified when Kate described how he'd burst into tears, though Krissy was giggling over the fact that Kate had just high-fived her little girl and informed her that, yes, that was the correct way to deal with boys that tried to steal kisses or anything else.

"I thought you were supposed to be bringing optimism," Kurt teased her when he saw how deeply pink Sying's cheeks had turned.

Kate gave him a look and gestured around the room at the giggling audience. "They love it and you know it. Careful or I'll dish on you too. I have some _good_ doped-up Nightcrawler stories."

"If it's just more of him making kissy faces at you and proclaiming his love in German … well. Go for it. We haven't heard it in a while," Elin replied with a crooked little smile.

Kate just laughed. "Yes, well, there was plenty of that too," she had to admit. "But seriously, guys. So _sincere_. And he took everything literally. It was painfully adorable and hilarious at the same time." She leaned over to grin Kurt's way with her chin in her hand. "This was back before Dr. Fuzzy got his amazing sidekick stepson, mind you."

"If you're done with the reminiscing, it's time to make the demon king think he's back in hell," Daken called out. "And attempt to get my father back."

The others in the group nodded at that, though as they were all gathering their weapons, Kate couldn't resist calling out Daken's way, "As another short mentor once said — there's no try; only do!"

"You are looking a bit like Yoda in your elder years," he replied with a smirk. "Slightly more hair."

"Aww, you're just a big softie now that you're older," she teased him right back. "Older you wouldn't have said it was 'a bit'."

"I look younger though," he replied.

She stuck her tongue out at him and waved him off. "Go kick my father-in-law's butt for me. I'll be here when you get back."

"I was planning on the other side, but if you insist," he called back.


	5. An Elf and His Bamfs Are Not Long Parted

**Notes: Pshaw, you act like I haven't religiously been following Kate in the comics this whole time :P Of course I know she and Clint are getting the WCA back together. And the 'new character' is actually her boyfriend from the most recent Hawkeye run, so you definitely should go read that because I can't say enough how much I enjoy that run (especially since it validated a lot of our theories that we wrote for Kate before it even came out lol). I'm excited to see him try his hand at hero work, because he's been a great sidekick for Kate thus far, but stepping up to actual hero will be interesting for him.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: "An Elf and His Bamfs Are Not Long Parted"**

* * *

When Daken caught up to the rest of the group, Krissy had hung back and was shaking her head, even smiling at him. "I forgot how much I missed the picking," she said quietly.

"If all goes well, the picking will go up substantially around here," he told her. "I hope. I really don't know what they're like now."

"If they have anything left of their old selves, just get them within a few feet of my wife, and I guarantee, she will find a way to pick on them regardless until they crack," Kurt said with a small chuckle.

"I think if we can get them out of his grip ... and leave them alone for five minutes …"

"Hey — get your heads out of the future until we're done here," Sying called back to them.

"Such a joykill," Daken replied.

"He's just trying to sound like his dad," Krissy said, making a face at Sying, who tipped his chin up at her.

"Fair enough," Daken said with a nod. "Wear tighter pants and you'll get there, kiddo."

"And swallow a dictionary," Krissy added.

Sying rolled his eyes at her. "Just try to stay out of my way once we're there," he teased. "Slowpoke."

"Didn't Tommy outstrip you last time?" Daken asked with a smirk as Krissy leaned over to high-five him. "Something like … six to one?"

"Hey." Sying leveled his finger at Daken. "That — that doesn't count."

"It absolutely does," he replied. "Six. Times. Over."

Kurt couldn't help but chuckle as he watched Daken with the kids. "How long have you been looking out for them?" he asked in a low tone.

"I was on my own for a few months after Azazel had his little hissy fit," Daken told him. "I saw them fighting — and losing. So I decided that I'd rather make Azazel miserable than anyone else."

"Plus, he loves us," Krissy chimed in with a wide smile.

"Don't push it," Daken told her with a little glare that had no fire in it at all.

She smirked wider at him, but she didn't say anything else — though it was unclear if that was because she was playing nice or because they were getting closer to where Azazel had set up in what was left of the Broadway theater.

"Well, Krissy — at least you get your dramatic flair honestly," America said with a smirk.

"I'm going to set the bombs," Daken said, before he darted off silently.

"Great. Papa and I will 'port Logan and K out once we can get close," Krissy said with a nod. She looked to Kurt. "Just tell me where to take them."

"Five hundred feet above Yankee Stadium — and let them go," Kurt replied. "If that doesn't do it — nothing will."

"Got it," she said, settling her shoulders as she put on her most determined expression, her hands resting on the hilts of her swords. "Everybody else is on demon patrol — and if you get a shot at my evil grandpa, _take it_."

"Don't worry about that," Kurt said with a growl. "If I get the chance, I'll put him down."

"Oh, and don't die," America added pointedly, though she flew off before Kurt could fix her with a glare.

The group split up as they approached the main stage — where it was clear Azazel was enjoying himself. He had a throne set up in the center of the stage and was all but strutting as he directed his demons setting up quarters and lavish rooms — with Logan and K nearby on opposite sides of him looking incredibly unamused.

Kurt had to admit that he was impressed with the little resistance group. The moment they entered the theater, they didn't need to speak to get into position, just waiting for the first of Daken's firebombs to go off before they sprang into action. And when the first explosion sounded, the three super-strong members of the group (the ones that weren't setting bombs, anyway) tore right for the stage even as dozens of demons appeared at the first sign of trouble.

Logan and K took a moment with their eyes closed before they slowly started to move toward their friends, claws out and clearly looking ready to fight as Kurt and Krissy worked their way closer to find an opening as the two ferals headed for Noh.

To his credit, he was keeping them occupied, though he didn't _look_ like he was pulling any punches while he darted between them.

It looked like it was going to work. Noh was keeping them close, drawing them bit by bit further from Azazel as America tried very hard to throw a demon she'd punched in mid-air into his stupid throne. "How's this for a blunt force instrument?" she called to Sying.

"Too small. Throw him back," Sying quipped before he took off a demon's head.

But as Azazel started to get to his feet, he saw just a flicker of a tail on either side of the stage, and he very quickly put two and two together. He ignored America's taunts as he growled low to himself and teleported across to where the two ferals were fighting Noh.

The plume of red smoke and brimstone swirled as he laid a hand on K's shoulder, and she let loose a growl so low and fearsome that Kurt very nearly held his breath — moreso when Logan started with a similar growl an instant later just before Azazel managed to touch him too. And in another poof of smoke, the three of them were gone.

Krissy appeared in a plume of purple smoke right where the three of them had been in what had clearly been a last-ditch effort to stop him, and she swore very loudly in German when she came up with red smoke in her outstretched hands. "We should have moved sooner!" she said through her teeth. "We _had_ it!"

"Krissy, had you moved while I was fighting them, we would have had to call in Tyler to patch you up again like last time," Noh pointed out gently. "They were still too close to each other."

She swore again, under her breath this time, and sank into a seat as Sying and America took the heads off the last of the demons that hadn't been taken out by Daken's bombs. "But we've got to get Papa back," she muttered.

"Perhaps that's exactly what we need," Kurt said with a frown. "What is the security like where your papa is being held?"

She glanced up at him for a moment with wide eyes. "It's pretty heavy," she admitted. "We lost several X-Men trying to break you — him — out. And Mom." She pulled on the end of her tail the slightest bit.

"But you didn't have a teleporter," Kurt said. "And you weren't allowed to go. What happened to my bamfs?"

"Oh, you do _not_ want to meet them if you can help it," America told him frankly.

"Then they were as I had found them originally," Kurt said. "That cannot be." His hands were in fists at his sides, and the very tip of his tail was twitching.

"I don't know that it's quite that bad?" Sying offered. "As I understand it, they didn't really _want_ to follow him? But… creatures of hell. It was a hard pull to resist. They're more or less just in the business of messing with people for themselves, just… staying out of his way."

"But they have been saved by God," Kurt argued. "That counts for far more than even my father can attest. I will get them back."

"Now you sound like the Kurt we're used to," America said with a small smirk. She leaned forward in the air with her hands shoved in the pockets of her shorts. "Rumor has it he actually got one back — but we haven't found the little guy, if he even exists."

"I'm _sure_ he exists," Krissy said stubbornly. "If Papa said he did it, then he did."

"Where are they? I'm sure they're travelling in a pack," Kurt asked, turning toward Daken as he and Jubilee came in from their bombing spree.

Daken let out a little sigh in response and tipped his head to the side. "Believe it or not, they've infested Hell's Kitchen. I think they thought it was funny."

"I bet we could get them back if we had you _and_ my Papa," Krissy said thoughtfully, looking at Kurt with a little glimmer of a smile. "They'd find you hard to resist."

"If I can get one — we can get your Papa," Kurt said.

"Sounds like we're going to Hell's Kitchen then," Sying said, rolling up his sleeves.

Kurt looked his way with his eyes flashing. "We go now; I don't want to wait and regroup."

"Okay — just let me tell Elin where we're going," Sying said, holding up his hands. "If we're not back when we're supposed to be, she's supposed to move the others in case we got captured. So just… don't go anywhere," he said before he simply zipped off at full speed to go talk to the others.

"Show-off," Krissy muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Says the girl with instantaneous travel," Daken drawled out.

"Yeah, but when I 'port, it comes with demons," she complained. She glanced at Kurt as she explained, "Dear old grand-dad seems to think I shouldn't be using 'his' gifts to fight him."

"That sounds like him," Kurt said with a nod, though he still looked as if he was concentrating on something in the distance for how much he had his eyes narrowed.

It took Sying a bit longer than they had expected to come back, but when he returned, it was immediately clear what the holdup had been, as he had Kate with him, and she was looking determined.

She hadn't even set foot on the stage floor before she stuck her finger in Daken's face. "Don't even start with me, because I know he's not here, and you guys are going after the bamfs, so I'm _coming with_."

Behind her, Sying looked slightly sheepish. "Sorry. She asked, and I didn't want to lie to her," he admitted.

"Then it's your job to get her back if anything goes wrong," Daken replied.

"Okay," Sying said, looking properly abashed as he seemed to hover a bit closer to Kate after getting the assignment, though Krissy took a moment to glare at him.

"If she so much as skins her knee, I will _break_ you," Krissy muttered in his ear low enough that only those with enhanced hearing could hear it.

"Don't promise if you can't follow through," Sying shot back — and then very, very quickly ran to the other side of the group as she gaped at him in annoyance and then growled back.

* * *

When they arrived at Hell's Kitchen, it was clear that the bamfs had been having the time of their lives with the place — it was pretty well and truly trashed, except for a few random places that the bamfs enjoyed, like a pool hall or a restaurant on occasion. The first sign of the bamfs wasn't anything they could see — instead, it was an echoing giggle that was hard to pinpoint, as it seemed to come from everywhere.

"No offense, Kurt, but I hate these guys," America muttered from above them as she tried to spot the bamfs from the skies. "Last time, they caught my hair on fire."

Kurt glanced her way for a moment before he looked around the seemingly empty buildings. He hadn't taken a handful of steps before he saw a flicker of movement in a window four stories up. He looked across the way to a few of the other buildings and saw a flash here and there of the little demons and heard the muted sound they made as they teleported from one hidey hole to the next, though it wasn't long before their mischievous giggling could be heard at street level and little yellow pairs of eyes began to appear in all the shadows.

One of them moved nearby, and he saw that their color had once again shifted back to red — and in an instant, he was furious all over again. " _Was denkst du eigentlich, was Du hier machst?"_ He half snarled, his hands balled into fists as he glared from one dark corner to the next. "After what I gave up for you? You dare to turn on me?" He was nearly spitting as he shouted at them. "You shouldn't fear my father, little ones. Not right now."

The mischievous giggling had stopped, at least, but the bamfs were more or less watching him lose his temper with wide eyes before one brave little bamf tried to argue with him in their one-word language.

"You were supposed to do something other than _turn on me_ ," he snarled out his way.

The little bamf cringed but kept up his chattering, now pointing at Kate — who, Kurt noticed, had the attention of a few bamfs as they seemed to be trying to decide if she was real.

"You are supposed to fight — if not for me than for my _daughter_ ," Kurt hissed, his eyes narrowed. "You have failed both of us."

The brave little bamf lost all of his nerve at that, and several of the bamfs appeared to be scuffing their feet against the ground, their ears drooped, tails in their hands.

Kurt took a deep breath and closed his eyes as everything around him stilled. "I taught all of you about forgiveness. And I meant every word of it. And I will forgive you still — if you will _stop_ this idiocy and come back to me now."

The bamfs glanced at each other, seemingly a little hesitant and unsure of just how forgiving their big brother would be. But one little imp teleported to where Krissy was with half of a chocolate bar he had been eating to hold the other half out to her as the best apology he knew how to give. This seemed to embolden a few of the others, and two more teleported over to where Kate was to very shyly kiss her cheeks and chatter at her.

She giggled at them and nodded. "Yes, I am real. Thank you — I'm glad I'm not gray-haired too," she said, and they started to giggle harder at that.

But it wasn't until the bamfs had tried it out on Krissy and Kate that one of them finally teleported close to Kurt, sitting in the air in front of him with his hands clasped in front of him and a very, very sorry look on his face.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you'd missed me," Kurt said to him gently.

At that, the little guy nodded fervently.

He held out his arms to offer him a hug, and when the little guy took it, Kurt held him tightly. "Then it's time we got your big brother out of the tower, don't you think?"

A few of the other bamfs, seeing that it was safe, quickly joined in to hug Kurt as well, chattering and giggling at him and making it clear how much they missed him.

"I don't mind you causing trouble," Kurt said. "But you need to cause it for the right people. So, let's do some damage to my father, _ja_?"

"My husband, the motivational speaker," Kate said fondly, and the bamf on her shoulder giggled at that.

"I feel like I should complain about you two _not_ stopping, but I just … I missed you guys," Jubilee said, shaking her head at Kate and Kurt — and Kate smirked even wider.

"As happy as I am that you are all in agreement, I believe we should take this off the street," Kurt said. "Can you still follow my lead?"

A couple of the bamfs giggled in response and teleported away, only to come back with a fife that one of them played while the others marched along before the fife player handed the instrument to Kurt.

With that, Kurt gave them a grin, and they all teleported to the top of the building that they'd been hiding in. When they looked down on their friends, Jubilee had to let out a low whistle. "They're blue again," she said with a growing smile. "That has to be a good thing, right?"

One of the bamfs gave her a double thumbs up as another three were pointing at Kurt and then at themselves and then at Kurt again. One bamf in particular appeared about six inches from America's nose with wide eyes, only to quickly kiss the tip of her nose and look at her sheepishly for a moment, then pat her head and disappear.

"He's just lucky I like the new hairstyle," America growled out, though the threat didn't really have much bite to it, and they all knew it.

"Let's regroup and get Nightcrawler the elder from the tower," Kurt said. "I think we can take them by force."

"With your small army back in line?" Sying grinned widely. "I like this plan. First time in a long time we've actually had numbers on our side."

…

Translation from German:

" _Was denkst du eigentlich, was Du hier machst? -_ What do you think you are doing here?


	6. Escape from the Tower of London

**Notes: Sorry about the delay! I was at Girls Camp last week and then this weekend I was too tired to update but we'll do three updates this week to make up for it ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: "Escape from the Tower of London"**

* * *

"At least the weather is in our favor," Daken said quietly as the group of resistance fighters approached the Tower of London. "Remind me to send Storm something sparkly." The tower was surrounded by a thick fog that even the brightest lights didn't want to cut through. "That woman is a genius." He glanced toward where he knew Kurt was and had to smirk to himself a bit. This … wasn't terrible. "Good luck," he said, then simply darted off into the fog with a bamf on his shoulder.

"It's a good thing we're not back at Broadway, or I'd have to hit you for jinxing me," Krissy quipped, though it was obvious to anyone that heard her that her voice was shaking the slightest bit with nerves over getting her father back. "Break a leg, guys. But not literally, please."

"Now who's jinxing who?" America shot back, rolling her eyes as she flew around the tower in the cover of the fog. "I can see a few flyers. Soon as you say go, they're going to be grounded."

"Let us get inside first," Kurt said. "We'll need the distraction."

"Move fast, junior Nightcrawler. My knuckles are itching."

Kurt grinned to himself. "Are you ready, little brothers?" he asked, addressing the army of bamfs around them. "Keep them away from us, and keep them confused."

The bamfs grinned widely, and several of them gave Kurt reassuring little hugs before they teleported off to cause mayhem, their giggles echoing in the fog before they heard the first roar of a demon being surprised by their antics.

"That's our cue," Krissy said to Kurt, looking even more nervous than before.

He reached out, took her hand in his, and gave her a soft smile. "You'll be magnificent."

"I always am, Papa," she said with a very quiet smirk before she followed his lead teleporting into the tower, and the two of them took off running up the stairs, as they had teleported in as close as they could. After all, to keep the other Nightcrawler contained, there was some kind of spell preventing teleporting at the very top of the tower.

They fought back a small group of very powerful demons that they simply didn't seem to make much traction with until Kurt remembered what Daken had said and pulled out his vial of holy water and decided to take it a step further and began praying in Latin out loud as well.

Krissy grinned at him as the demon who had managed to push her back — though she was holding her defense with both swords raised — seemed to recoil at Kurt's actions, and she took the creature's hesitation as an advantage, running both swords through him and pulling them out sideways. "Keep going — I think it's working," she called out as she twirled her sword in one hand — a maneuver he'd clearly taught her.

The two of them worked their way up as the battle outside waged on hot and heavy — literally. Daken's bombs had been going off left and right, and the holy water secondary burst had been doing its job well enough, but Daken found himself in a bad way as one of the largest demons he'd seen yet flat backhanded him across the courtyard. He looked up at him with a growl and popped his claws before he dove at him and started slashing and nearly dancing around it, cutting it where he could and tearing pieces off of him.

Noh was nearest when the creature got a hold of him and, in a snarling rage, snapped Daken's claws clean off and then slashed him very nearly in half before simply tossing him against the tower itself. In a second, the Kree fighter was there to pull the demon away from doing Daken any more damage, tearing into the creature with a low hiss of displeasure. The demon tried to use the same trick on him, slashing low — but Noh bent himself very nearly in half to avoid it and came back up swinging, leaving his fingernails in the five holes he left in the center of the creature's chest.

In a flash, Noh ran to grab Daken, not even looking at his injuries as his first priority was to get his injured ally away from the explosion that sounded behind them. When the demon was properly blown to smithereens, he set Daken down for a moment to look him over and had to frown. He'd never seen Daken this badly injured.

"Don't you dare die on me, you imbecile," Noh growled low, but Daken was completely silent.

"Gotcha covered," America called out from above him seconds before she landed heavily on the ground, using a demon to cushion her fall. "Me and the mini-you will take over here — you make sure no one tries to grab and/or finish off your frenemy, okay, _chico_?"

Noh shot a look her way but nodded as he looked toward the rest of the demons in the area. Jubilee came skidding to a stop beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Got your back," she told him as the two took up defensive positions.

And at the top of the tower, Kurt and Krissy had finally made their way to where Nightcrawler was being held, and all that was left was to simply break into the cell. Kurt looked at his grown daughter, and that seemed to be all he needed to tip him over the edge. With a backflip fit for any circus performer, Kurt kicked in the door, shattering the ancient wood and startling the older, grayer Nightcrawler inside.

"You shouldn't be here," Nightcrawler said in a bit of confusion as he watched a younger, clearly stronger version of himself approach. The older Nightcrawler simply looked tired — worn and beaten physically, emotionally, and mentally — as Kurt worked quickly to release him from his restraints.

But her father's confusion didn't seem to deter Krissy in the least as she darted forward and wrapped her arms around his neck as soon as he was free. "We weren't going to leave you here, Papa," she whispered to him as she gently kissed his forehead, and he leaned against her with a tired, almost relieved sigh.

But once the three of them were solidly in the room, the door seemed to pull itself back together and meld into the wall, clearly trapping them for Azazel to retrieve. Kurt growled out in frustration and swore in German as he called for his bamfs to come to his aid.

"Alright," Krissy said in a very small voice, still half holding her father up. "I wasn't expecting that."

Kurt paced, his jaw locked. "We can't teleport up here," he growled to himself, studying the situation and trying to find a way out as his tail switched irritably. "How to get out of the room …" The door obviously wasn't going to happen, and a peek through the window showed a sheer drop to concrete below.

"Tell me you at least came with backup," the older Nightcrawler said with a frown.

"Of course we did," Kurt said distractedly, still pacing — until he heard his father's voice just outside where the door had been moments before.

"How thoughtful of you to bring my granddaughter here _for_ me," Azazel purred out. "Saves me so much trouble when I don't have to hunt her down myself."

"Come in and say it to my face," Kurt half snarled as he stalked closer to where the door had been. "This is what you've done? All the power in heaven and earth — and you choose to torture my daughter and imprison my friends?"

Azazel sounded almost bored as he replied, "As it turns out, absolute power can be quite dull, and I admit, I need a little distraction now and again." He chuckled and added, "Though I thought surely you X-Men would have thrown this _particular_ angle my way much sooner. Are you slowing down, boy? Getting soft?"

"Nowhere near as slow as you'll be once you and I get a little time together. Coward." He narrowed his eyes further. "Where are my friends? As I understand it, you're too afraid to travel without them. So much for absolute power."

Azazel laughed at that. "Your friends are outside dispatching the rest of your little group. I'll almost miss watching them fruitlessly throw themselves into the fire."

"And you think you can keep us here?" Kurt growled.

"Why not?" Azazel asked. "I have ample entertainment outside — for the moment. Maybe I'll come find you both again later when you've learned to still that insolent tongue of yours."

"You'll be waiting a long time," Kurt replied before he gestured around them. "And you think this little prison will be enough to hold us?"

"It's already proven itself adequate once."

"Why? Because I can't teleport from here? As if that's all it would take." Kurt scoffed and let a little smirk play at the corner of his mouth. "You are getting slower in your old age, old man." He turned away from Azazel and looked from Krissy to the window with just his eyes, hoping she'd get the message. Although she just stared at him for a moment, his older self nodded solemnly as he rested his hands on Krissy's shoulders.

"And you are looking at the future of your own old age," Azazel shot back.

"Not when I know how to stop it," Kurt growled out before he took a running start at the half-rusted bars on the window and positively bashed them hard enough to loosen the bricks holding the bars in. He hit it with his shoulder twice more — as Azazel realized that there was indeed a chink in the prison's armor.

With the last hit, Kurt grabbed Krissy's hand, and the three of them leapt out of the window, though they were unable to teleport until they were a mere fifteen feet above the ground. When they hit the ground several thousand yards away, a cloud of bamfs appeared all around them in an instant to check and see if they were okay.

"Go — grab our friends if you can," Kurt told them. "All of them. K and Logan too, if you can avoid the claws. And if you can catch those two — drop them from a tall height far from here and then bring them back to us. Can you do that?"

The little bamfs looked very serious as they nodded in unison and teleported away, only to reappear later with all _but_ Logan and K. One of the little bamfs returned wide-eyed and looking half scared as he chattered to Kurt, holding one hand over his arm where he had clearly gotten tagged by a set of claws and was bleeding freely.

Krissy reached out with one hand to the little guy — supporting her father with the other. "You did your best, little guy," she told him before she pulled him over to tut over his arm. "Don't worry — we'll get you patched up back home."

Kurt let out a sigh, but when he saw that Daken was badly injured and that America had in fact taken Krissy's "break a leg" comment literally ... he looked to the bamfs, and they teleported back to their hideaway.

* * *

Back in the base, Kate was pacing, and Elin was watching her go back and forth. "That's not going to make them show up any quicker," Elin said quietly.

"No, but it makes me feel better to move," Kate admitted before she flopped down in her chair. "I hate getting left behind."

"It seems to happen to me more often than not," Elin said.

"Been happening since you were a baby. Sorry," Kate said with a sheepish smile.

"Yeah, well … then I dragged them with me to be left behind," she said with a little shrug.

Kate took a deep breath and leaned back in the chair so that the front two legs were off the ground. "It doesn't stop, you know. Just wait til you settle down and start having kids, and then they actively leave you behind from _everything_."

"Are you kidding me?" Elin said, shaking her head. "I can't do that. At all. Ever."

Kate let the chair back down on all four legs as she watched Elin with wider eyes. "I mean. You're totally too young right now, but…"

"Never. _Ever_."

"Okay, that's cool. But you said… _can't_?" Kate asked. "Because can't and don't' want to are different things." She held up both hands. "I'm just asking because ... hey. Look what happens when me and Kurt _can't_ and do. Not that I'm saying we didn't want — I mean, I love Krissy to pieces and wouldn't take it back. But… if there's some new problem we need to be looking out for for you when we get back to the past, let's get that out in the open now."

"I just can't watch anyone I care about die anymore," Elin said quietly.

Kate let out a breath as she realized what the problem was and nodded. "Yeah. Okay. So wait until Azazel's dead and this place is cleaned up. I get that." She scooted her chair a bit closer to Elin before she abandoned the slow and gentle approach to simply wrap her in a hug. "My team and I did the same thing after Cassie died. Decided it wasn't worth the risk and split. But... " She hugged Elin tighter. "Doesn't make you love them any less just because you don't say it."

"At least it's easier to lock away, though," she replied.

"You say that now, but then it just… explodes on you one day," Kate told her. "All that caring spills all over the place. Don't believe me? Ask Nat." She hugged her closer and rested her head on Elin's shoulder.

"I'm not sure she'd agree with you on that," Elin replied even quieter.

"Well, not right now, because right now, it's wartime," Kate admitted. "And things suck. But we're gonna fix that, and then you can break all the hearts you want, okay?" she added with a little smile. "Because we've been saying since you were born that you're gorgeous and boys will fall at your feet. You're supposed to prove us right."

"I'll leave that to Krissy and Zoe," Elin replied. "And Charlie, if she can get a grip on her abilities."

"I haven't met Zoe yet," Kate said with a little smirk.

"No, not if Krissy was only one when you left," Elin said. " _She's_ the heartbreaker."

"Takes after both of us, then," Kate teased lightly. "I'm told before I snagged the cute little Elf, he was quite the ladykiller."

"Stories sound the same about everyone if you listen. Same stuff was said about Dad and Mom too… Noh talked like you could have made a mission out of it if you'd wanted."

"Well, he _was_ on an exploratory mission," Kate teased.

Elin made a face. "Yeah, don't do that … I can't … can't picture the two of you. No."

"You know that's how your big brother met his wife, right? She was dressed as me? They made out while she was Hawkeye?" Kate pressed, sensing her advantage as she grinned outright.

"That's so nasty," Elin said with her lip curled a bit.

"America was having flashbacks. It was hilarious," Kate said. "And really, really weird to experience from the other side, not gonna lie."

"That would be fun. America, that is. Freaking out. It's about all the entertainment we get, honestly."

"I can arrange it. Jubes probably still fits my clothes," Kate teased, though Elin was thankfully saved from a replay of that particular part of her family history when there were several poofs of indigo smoke nearby, and the little group returned with several injured members — Daken and America in particular needed serious attention — and with the elder Nightcrawler.

Elin slipped off to help Daken, assuring the little bamfs and Sying that he'd be fine if he could get rest and food, though she was still trying to clean his wounds as best she could and _work_ to help pull him together.

Jubilee and Noh carried a loudly complaining America to a back room to all but force her to lay down and let them patch her up — which just left the three Elves from the rescue party.

Krissy had her father half propped up, though once she saw that they were safe, she wasted no time in pulling him into the nearest place with a spare cot — and then immediately melting into his lap, curling into him as she whispered out how much she'd missed him while he very gently held her and repeated his apologies for not being there.

Kurt and Kate watched the reunion from the doorway, and Kate had to frown when she saw the state the older Nightcrawler was in. He was clearly hurting, thin and ragged and beaten down — though she almost couldn't help but notice the gray in his hair, seeping in at the edges above his ears.

"You look so distinguished," she said before she could stop herself, and at the sound of her voice, Nightcrawler's head popped up, his eyes wide as he saw her in the doorway with her Kurt.

" _Vögelchen_ _,_ " he whispered out.

Kate didn't even really think about it. That was _Kurt_ looking at her like that, wide-eyed and hurting, and sure he was older, but that didn't really matter. Kurt was Kurt. In a flash, she was at his side to wrap her arms around his neck. "Hey there, _Engelchen_ ," she said with a quiet smile. "You look awful." But he couldn't answer her, just staring back at her with shining eyes until she hesitantly reached over to cup his cheek with her hand, and he leaned into her before he simply fell apart on her shoulder as both she and Krissy held him as tight as they could.

When Kate looked up again, she saw that her Kurt had left to go check on the others — and to allow his older self some time to recover in privacy, as the door was closed as well. She cleared her throat and pushed against the older Nightcrawler for just a moment so she could get a better look at him. "You really do look awful, sweetheart," she told him with a quaver in her voice. "And at the risk of sounding like Annie, you need _food_."

"And water?" he replied with the ghost of a smile.

She broke into a wide grin at that. "Oh, gallons of it," she agreed. "And if you're really good, there will be whiskey too," she added with a teasing smile.

"Not without Logan," he replied.

She shared a look with Krissy, who seemed to be perfectly content curled up between the two of them. "We're working on that," she promised. "We've got the bamfs on our side, so ... with you and me and Kurt and the bamfs and our _amazing_ daughter… pretty sure we're unstoppable."

Krissy lifted her hand and grinned at Kate at the compliment, though when Kate saw that Krissy's fur was matted with tears, her heart melted all over again, and she pulled the arm around Krissy a bit tighter. "We did good with this one, didn't we?" she said, grinning at her little girl. "Good to see we did _something_ right, at least."

Krissy smirked at her for a moment before she snuggled in deeper. "Shut up, Mom," she muttered out.

When Kurt returned a little while later after making sure that Elin was okay and that their injured friends were well taken care of, he found that both Krissy and his elder self had fallen asleep in a deep snuggle with Kate, who had one hand on each of their heads and was smiling quietly as she played with both their hair. When she saw Kurt peek in, she smiled his way and mouthed out 'so tired'.

"Well, it's been a busy day for them," Kurt whispered back as Kate tried to extricate herself from the cuddle pile. Krissy didn't wake up, but Nightcrawler stirred the slightest, his eyes wide as, for a moment, he looked as though he were terrified he had dreamt the entire escape. But when his gaze found Kate and then Krissy, he relaxed substantially, though he was still watching Kate with wide eyes.

"Go back to sleep," Kate told him, ruffling his hair the slightest bit. "You need it — and we'll all still be here when you wake up, I promise."

He leaned into her touch, his eyes closed as he seemed to drink it in for a moment. He looked like he wanted to ask her to stay, but when Krissy let out the slightest sigh in her sleep, he took a moment to look down at her and kiss the top of his daughter's head, and Kate slipped out, closing the door behind her.

Kurt watched her for a moment as she leaned against the stone wall before, suddenly, she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately, pulling him as tight as she could. He was surprised for a moment before he responded in kind and pulled her just as tightly to him, and for a long moment, they forgot about where they were, when they were, and everything else.

When the long kiss finally broke, Kate rested her head underneath his chin for a long moment, until, finally, she whispered, "I can't… I hate seeing you like that."

He let out a sigh as he very gently held her. "This future isn't ours — it doesn't have to be, not when we're seeing every moment more ways to keep it from happening in our time," he assured her.

"Good," she replied with a decisive sort of nod before she stole another kiss that lasted longer than she'd meant it to. She wasn't sure if she was trying to erase the image just behind her eyes of a broken Kurt or if she was trying to reassure _her_ Kurt that she wouldn't let that happen to him — but whatever it was, she was going to kiss him until she stopped _feeling_ like that.


	7. Kate the Nursemaid

**Chapter 7: "Kate the Nursemaid"**

For the moment, the little group didn't have any plans other than focusing on rest and recovery for those that had been hurt in rescuing the older Nightcrawler. They were especially aware of how much they needed to nurse the older Nightcrawler back to health after a years-long ordeal. They didn't know where Azazel had moved with their friends, but they were sure he was likely to try to retaliate for their successful rescue, so everyone was on high alert.

The bamfs were basically patrolling outside, since they couldn't exactly come into the church — but they were absolutely determined to make things up to Nightcrawler for not fighting alongside his family and friends before. They could be seen porting all over the place keeping an eye on things — or getting food and supplies to bring to their recovering big brother.

Kate had elected herself to take care of the older Nightcrawler, giving the bamfs instructions. She could usually be seen hustling around the halls getting food, water, and anything else she had decided he needed — since Krissy didn't seem to be willing to leave her dad for anything, and Kate was half making sure Krissy ate too.

She wasn't sure how the bamfs had done it, but they had somehow found coffee in this half-destroyed city, and she wasn't going to question it as she made herself busy. So when she popped in to find the older Kurt chatting quietly with Krissy — who was enthusiastically updating him on the battles she'd fought and the resistance she and Elin were pretty much running — she was in an excellent mood, because — well — "I bring coffee!" she announced with a wide grin.

"How did you _find_ coffee out here?" Krissy asked, immediately perking up as she rushed over to grab the mug Kate held out to her.

"Thank the bamfs," Kate said, grinning at the expression of delight on Krissy's face. "They're kissing up to make up for being little… demons." She shook her head. "They try so hard."

"You always did make excuses for them," Nightcrawler replied quietly.

"Only when they weren't annoying _me_ ," Kate corrected him gently as she sat down next to him to press a mug into his hands. "I seem to recall you teasing me about them being our little friends until they annoyed me. And then they're _your_ little demons." She grinned over the top of her own mug. "Which they are." He just smiled right back at her, his gaze never leaving her face.

Krissy let out a long and contented sigh after she took a sip of coffee before she looked to her father. "I told you, right, about how the younger you got the bamfs to listen to him again?" When he nodded and smiled her way, she grinned. "Apparently, I've been doing it all wrong. I should have yelled at them first before I tried to convince them to help out."

"Is that how you convinced the legendary little bamf that could?" Kate teased Nightcrawler, still watching him out of the corner of her eye to make sure that he was eating and drinking.

He smiled softly her way and even chuckled quietly. "Yes, well, that was early on. He came to visit _me_. I asked him to look out for our daughter," he explained before the smile slipped the slightest bit as he looked toward Kate. "But then, that was early on," he said, very softly, and he just looked so heartbroken that Kate had to reach over and grab the hand that wasn't holding his coffee mug to give him an encouraging sort of squeeze.

"Well, they're looking out for everybody now. It's probably the cutest guard patrol on the planet right now — though I haven't met Zoe yet, and I don't know if there were any other bitties, so I'm making this judgement in total, blissful ignorance," Kate said as she gently took the mug from him and handed him some toast.

"Well, if you don't know Zoe, then you don't know several," he told her. "They're off fighting or hiding — depending on how old they are. Unless they're already lost. In either case, I'll try not to tell you too much."

"Please don't," Kate agreed, pulling a bit of a face. "The more I hear, the more I think I'm glad I just skipped ahead to the part where we rescue you and not the really crummy in between."

"Which makes me wonder," he said. "What is it you need to do to get home?"

"I don't actually know," she admitted with a little light shrug. "This is my first time doing the time-travel thing." She raised an eyebrow at him for a moment. "Please tell me it's the last time too, because I don't think I like time travel."

"She's been saying that since she got here," Krissy told her father with a little smirk. "Gee, Mom, did you do this every time you came across something new?"

Kate raised her eyebrows at Krissy for just a moment before she let out a breath of a laugh. "Oh, you learned to backtalk from me, didn't you? I'm fighting the urge to send you to your room or something," she teased. "Which makes me feel _old_ , so you're gonna have to stop that."

Krissy grinned and blushed a bit pink across her cheeks. Well. Pink-er. "I'm not a little kid anymore," Krissy defended. "And I'm going to blame Elin."

"Good, good. You got that from him," Kate said, tipping her head at Kurt. "Blame the bestie. Good. Now where's your bow?" she teased.

"Mom, where would I find any arrows that do damage against _demons_?" she pointed out. "I've got my swords — they do way more damage."

"At least tell me you know _how_ to shoot, because I'm about to have to give past me a talking to," Kate teased, grinning wider still.

" _Mom_ ," Krissy complained, blushing a little pinker. "Of _course_ I know how to shoot!"

"Oh good." Kate leaned back in her chair and nodded to herself. "That's something, at least." She raised an eyebrow for a moment as she looked over her grown daughter. "You better get back in practice after we kill Azazel," she said in what she hoped was a commanding 'mom' voice to a teenager, though considering her experience on that front was either dealing with the Young Avengers or being an actual parent to a baby, she really had no idea if she was doing it right.

"Yes, Mom," Krissy said with a little laugh.

"Get your Uncle Clint to shoot with you too," Kate said, grinning wider now. "I bet you could totally outshoot the old man."

"He wants to try," Krissy said. "But we haven't had time yet. I'll be sure to Hawkeye him for you."

"That's my girl." Kate beamed at her, reaching over to ruffle her hair and then kiss her cheek. "Kick his butt." She snatched up their mugs to refill them as she added, "And make sure to tell him you had coffee while he was off doing whatever in the Wild West. He'll die of jealousy, and it will be beautiful."

"You are mean-spirited," Nightcrawler laughed with a fond look in his eyes.

"Only to those I love," she teased right back. "Besides — I'm pretty sure a half-demon rubbed off on me."

"Seriously, Mom?" Krissy sighed, rolling her eyes.

"You're right," Kate agreed solemnly, though her eyes were twinkling. "He's always a good influence and never ever a prankster or an imp or anything like that." When she caught the graying Nightcrawler outright grinning at that, she just rolled her eyes at him. "Eat your food, beanpole." When his grin widened even more, she shoved the rest of the food at him. "I'm just ... gonna go get my own breakfast," she announced, though she ended up leaving her coffee mug behind as she scooted out quickly.

* * *

The younger Kurt, meanwhile, was making the rounds with the others, checking to make sure Sying and Noh had things well in hand with America, who was the _worst_ patient when it came to anything like a serious injury, taking it as a body blow to her pride, since she was practically invulnerable. Practically. But no matter how often Noh reminded her that some magic was too strong even for them, she was just downright grumpy.

Jubilee was with the twins as she filled Chance in on how things were finally looking up — because they'd managed to rescue the older Kurt, and the bamfs were back, that kind of thing. Which was great news for Charlie, who was picking up on the uptick of hope and happiness around them.

And as for Elin and Daken, Elin had fussed over him in a quiet sort of way, making sure he actually ate and slept, and as soon as he was halfway able, he seemed ready to get back out to try and find Azazel. He and Noh both had a feeling that the demon king wasn't going to let the insult go unchallenged — and he wanted to scout things out as soon as he felt halfway healed.

Kurt watched and waited quietly as Elin saw him off and then, very gently, slipped over to put a hand on her shoulder. "You seem to be doing an excellent job running things around here," he said with a proud sort of smile.

She let out a sigh and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Well, It's not like I have much of a choice," she replied. "No one will let me go out, and when I do manage to get out? They act like it's the end of the world."

"Yes, well, we tend to be overprotective, I've been told," he said as he hugged her back for a moment. "Repeatedly."

"Just doesn't feel like I'm doing anything but taking up space when I could be fighting," she half grumbled it out.

" _L_ _ä_ _cherlich_ ," he replied with a gruff sort of huff. "We may have only just arrived, but it's clear to see you're the glue holding half of them together. Looking out for the twins, keeping us idiotic adults from running ourselves into the ground — and looking out for Krissy. I know you were there the entire time Krissy confronted us in the church." He pulled her in tighter. "It seems to me you are indispensable."

"You are biased," she accused him.

"Naturally," he admitted with a small smile. "But that doesn't make me any less right."

"This is not what I'm supposed to do, though," she argued.

"No," he had to agree. "What you are _supposed_ to be doing is learning at the Xavier Institute and doing the things that a normal teenage girl would do there. This…" He waved his hand at their surroundings. "...was not _supposed_ to happen."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it," she replied, though she had to smirk a bit at him.

"Well, you _are_ young," he teased her gently. "And I think I would know what is _supposed_ to happen a little more than you, even if this is not my time."

"How is other you doing?" she asked. "I'm guessing he's just trying not to break his face grinning."

Kurt shook his head at her for a moment. "Krissy hasn't left his side," he admitted. "And Kate seems to be taking a page out of Annie's book — though I admit, my future self definitely needs the food and rest."

"Well, when you've decided that you want your wife back, let me know, and I'll go lay a guilt trip on him," Elin said frankly.

"I'd like to think I can get her back all on my own," he teased.

"'I'm sure you can, but ... I would like to think that I can keep old you from acting entirely like an idiot."

"Well, you _do_ run things around here," he allowed with a little smirk. "And I'd like to think that fourteen years, no matter what happened in the meantime, would not be enough to turn me from my manners as a gentleman and an X-Man," he added with one raised eyebrow.

"That is entirely true," she agreed. "Perfect gentleman most of the time, but … the other you has lost a _lot._ "

"So have you, _kleines M_ _ä_ _dchen_ ," he said, very gently taking her chin in his hand so he could look at her properly. "And yet I'm nothing but proud of you, seeing what you've done here."

"I just did what anyone else would have," she said with a little frown and a shake of her head, totally ignoring the rest of his statement.

Kurt let out a little laugh. "Well, at least you get that honestly," he half muttered before he took her in another gentle hug.

"Daken's right," she said as she snuggled in. "He's going to come after us for this one. I should find a new spot."

"Yes, that's likely a good idea," he agreed, deciding for the moment not to point out that she was just proving him right about taking care of everyone, though he didn't stop hugging her, either.

They heard the sound of running footsteps and heavy panting before the door opened, and both of them were half ready for bad news — but instead, a red-faced Chance burst through the door, clearly having just run at full speed all the way to the other end of the hideout. "Charlie," he panted out, grinning uncontrollably. "Charlie was asking where everybody went."

"Is she okay?" Elin asked, frowning a bit to herself.

But Chance ran over to her and picked her up in a hug, spinning her around before he ran to Kurt to hug him as well. "She's _talking_. She _asked_ where Kate was ... and Krissy, and… she _asked_ about you too, Elin!"

"So it's head trauma then?"

He shook his head hard. "No, no — she was wondering where everyone went. I mean, everyone was hanging out for a while and telling stories, and I think she missed it," he explained in a rush. "But Elin — she's _talking_."

"Don't tell Sying and Noh. They'll just point out she's living in the past," Elin replied. "Okay, let's go … see how she's doing."

He beamed at her and grabbed her by the arm to pull her along behind him. "Come on — this is… this is _great!_ " he said, half-breathlessly as Kurt followed along behind them with a faint smile as he watched Chance half tripping over himself with happiness.

When they got to Charlie's room, the difference was obvious. She wasn't nearly as curled up and was even half propped up in her pillows, smiling softly when she saw that Chance was back with Kurt and Elin.

"Wow," Elin said as she took a seat nearby. "How long will it be before you're ready to run these lunatics and cut me a break? Uncle Kurt says I'm in charge, so you know. Might want to fix that before the building burns down."

Charlie gave Elin a dry look before the smile returned and she shook her head. "Temporarily in charge," she croaked out in a voice that was heavy with disuse.

"Nuh-uh," Elin teased lightly. "You're gonna have to fight me for it now."

"I'll win," Charlie said with a little sparkle in her eyes.

"You'd like to think so," she shot back before she crossed over and climbed in next to her to give her a hug.

Charlie very tiredly leaned her head on Elin's shoulder for a moment, then raised an eyebrow. "You're doing better."

"Shut up; we're worried about you, you moron," Elin replied.

"I do better when you do better," Charlie countered, though she couldn't help but grin at Elin. "It's… easier when there's something to hold onto that's not... " She waved her hand and leaned against her friend again with a tired sort of sigh.

"This Kurt turned the bamfs," Elin whispered. "And he and Krissy nearly got Mom and Dad. Nearly."

Charlie raised both eyebrows high at that and then grinned over at Kurt. "So you're the reason everyone's in such a good mood?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"You say that as if you're surprised by it," Kurt teased.

"I really shouldn't be," Charlie agreed with a quiet laugh before she waved him over. "Come here. I haven't hugged you yet."

Kurt smiled softly as he took a seat next to her and simply wrapped her up warmly, even going so far as to kiss her temple midway through. "I'm so happy to see you improving," he told her quietly.

He could feel her arms getting stronger in the hug as she tightened her hold on him for a moment, her eyes closed as she half buried herself in his shoulder. "Oh. You're — that's a lot more than — wow," she muttered out as his happiness and warmth washed over her.

"It's easier for her to feel what you feel when she touches you," Chance explained, his grin threatening to split his face in half. "And to be honest, I don't think she's felt anything but … well. We _try_ not to stay too down around her," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Some are better at it than others," Elin added with a passing glance his way.

"Yeah, I could do a little better. I get tired though," he replied without missing a beat.

"If you were anymore sunshiney, you'd have a gravitational pull," she countered.

"Oh my gosh you two, get a room," Charlie said with a very Summers-esque smirk.

The teasing smirk Elin had completely fell. "I'll leave you guys to chat. Don't worry; I'll send someone with more sunshine."

"Elin!" Chance started to get up after her, but then he seemed to think better of it and instead shouted after her. "Can't take a joke from my big sister — scaredy cat!"

"If you say so," she called back, and a few moments later, she turned the corner to nearly run into Kate. "Oh. Perfect. You know how to get down to Charlie's right? Because … she's up and giving out hugs and _your_ Elf is down there — so just - go." She started to walk past her as she talked, just looking for distance.

"She's giving out _hugs_?" Kate beamed at the news and bounced on her toes. "Why aren't you down there too?"

"Because they need happy, and I can't do that," she called out. "Have fun."

Kate looked torn for only a moment between going to see Kurt and Charlie and going after the clearly unhappy young woman — but then she broke into a run and tackled Elin in a warm hug.

"You went the wrong way," Elin said as she tried to dislodge Kate, totally unsuccessfully.

"I _so_ did not. I went the right way. They have plenty of happiness and hope with Kurt around — and you, my darling girl, are just… you need hugs too." Kate held her even tighter and even snuck a kiss to her temple before Elin gave up and snuggled in.

Once she had Elin more or less trapped, Kate pulled them both down to sit right there in the middle of the hall and take Elin in a better snuggle. "You know we're going to fix this," she said in a very matter-of-fact tone. "We're gonna kick Azazel's butt and get your parents back — and then me and Kurt are going back home to make sure this never happens in the first place."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Elin said quietly.

"I don't," Kate countered. "I'm _definitely_ keeping these promises. Or didn't you notice the army of bamfs, the two Nightcrawlers, and the _amazing_ kids running this revolution?"

"I'm just not going to get my hopes up just yet," she replied. "You know how that is."

"Okay, that's fair? But also — you can be happy about the progress we've made and also be stupidly 'realistic.' Trust me. I watched Scott do it for years and it was hilarious. Most optimistic realist I have ever met." But when Elin raised an eyebrow at her, Kate sighed and fell silent, pulling the young woman as tight as she could in a warm hug — though Elin didn't make the slightest move to uncurl from Kate's side.

They must have been there for forever, but Kate didn't mind in the least. They probably could have fallen asleep right there in the hallway, too, but apparently, the older Nightcrawler had slipped past Krissy to try to see who else was around, and he broke into a wide smile when he saw the two of them curled up together. "Ah — _there's_ my other little girl," he said as he leaned against the wall and slid down to sit on the other side of Elin. "I wondered where you'd gone, _Kleine_."

Elin loosened her grip on Kate and straightened up a bit as she very quickly composed herself. "I had to look after Daken … and then Charlie ... you should go see Charlie. Kate was headed there when I slowed her down."

"I'm sure you didn't slow her down," he corrected her, shaking his head. He watched her with his head tilted to one side before he let out a breath. "You've shot up like a weed these past years," he teased. "And you're still so small to be trying to carry everyone at once."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Elin said with a little shake of her head.

He peered closer and took in the years' worth of difference before he let out a breath and opened his arms. "I've missed you, _Kleine_."

She shifted from Kate to Nightcrawler and curled in again. "I've missed you too," she replied quietly. "But I think we need to feed you a little better than you have been."

"So I've been told," he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead before he smirked at Kate. "Many times."

"So how many more is it going to take for you to listen?" Elin asked, trying to be stern with him.

"Maybe I would listen better if I had both of my little girls with me," he told her, hugging her that much closer.

She nodded her agreement and peeked over at Kate. "Thank you," she half whispered.

Kate nodded as she got to her feet. "No problem," she whispered back before she slipped off back down the hall toward Charlie's room, leaving Elin and _her_ version of Nightcrawler together.

When she arrived, Kurt and Chance were still chatting with Charlie, who seemed even stronger than before and was sitting up and laughing, though she looked like she was half leaning on Kurt for support. Jubilee and Sying were there too, though everyone seemed to get more excited when Kate arrived, and Kurt scooted over to make space for Kate to hug Charlie warmly.

"Hello," Charlie said as Kate wrapped her arms around her.

"Hello yourself," Kate said with a wide smile. "You look _so_ much better."

"So I'm told," Charlie said, though she was looking over Kate with an almost thoughtful expression. "You — you were just with Elin, weren't you?"

Kate nodded, her head tipped to one side. "How'd you know?"

"You and Kurt — and, I mean, I guess the other you and Kurt — always have the same feelings when you're trying to take care of her ever since…" Charlie trailed off and let out a sigh. "You should all be taking care of her too — not just me."

"Hey," Sying said, shaking his head at her. "We totally look out for her. You're not the boss of us anymore," he added, sticking out his tongue.

"Anymore?" Kate raised an eyebrow, unable to resist the chance at teasing.

"Oh, we let her and Chance _think_ they were in charge," Krissy said from the doorway as she finally came to join the fun — since her dad wasn't going to leave Elin anytime soon. "It's good for her."

"Yes, they get this bizzare … puffed out proud look when they thinks they're running the show," Sying agreed.

" _No_ idea where they get it from," Krissy chuckled. "It's a mystery."

"All they need is a disapproving look and a pair of red lenses," Sying said under his breath.

"What would you know about red lenses?" Kate teased. "I thought he ditched those before you were born."

"I've seen the old photographs," he replied. "And he carries a pair for when he's just too angry to keep control."

"Which… is kind of often lately," Chance admitted with a little shrug. "Or it was, last we saw him. Not that anyone can blame him with the missions he's running."

"What's that?" Kurt asked curiously.

"He's trying to save little kids," Chance replied. "It's all very hard to get into places, and the team is very very small."

"And very very crazy," Jubilee muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

"That … yes. But. They're getting along alright, kinda," Chance said, drifting off a bit before he clued Kate and Kurt in. "My dad … kinda took Cable's place working with Deadpool."

Kate glanced at Charlie for a second before she held out one arm to Chance. "You. Over here. Now," Kate instructed Chance.

"Now _she's_ the boss," Sying teased, bumping Krissy's shoulder with his, and she gave him a dry look.

But Kate shot Sying a look over the twins' heads and snuggled both of the twins tight, grabbing Chance so he was all but trapped. "If your dad's with Wade, he'll make sure to get him back to you," she told Chance. "He's just like that."

"He is," Charlie agreed. "But there was already one incident where apparently Wade thought that Dad needed mouth-to-mouth when he in fact did not."

"He's just like that too," Kate said, trying not to laugh. She pulled both of them close and kissed the tops of their heads before her stomach grumbled very loudly. "Oh. Right. I still haven't eaten today," she muttered.

Kurt almost laughed at that as he offered her his hand and pulled her out of the little snuggle pile. "Well, we should fix that much at least," he said, and she grinned at him as he snaked an arm around her waist and led her out of the room, leaving the rest of the group behind with Charlie.

Kate waited until they were reasonably far enough away from Charlie's room before she let out a sigh and leaned her head on his shoulder. "I just… want to take them all home. Away from this. They don't deserve any of it," she admitted in a whisper.

"No, they don't," he agreed, holding her a bit closer.

"I can't… I can't just watch this. I can't stand it," she muttered out as he pulled her to a stop and very gently pulled her into a warm embrace, her head underneath his chin. "I can't watch you hurt, and I can't watch those kids…"

"I know," he said softly, trying to find something more to comfort her, but in a moment, she'd stood on her toes to pull him into what was almost a hungry kiss, and he just held her as tightly as she needed him to.

They still hadn't gone to get anything to eat when the kiss finally broke — not because either of them was entirely done, either, but because they could hear an argument echoing in the hallway beyond them.

"You can't stop me from doing my job," Elin said in a heated tone, though it wasn't entirely clear right away to whom she was speaking until Kate and Kurt turned the corner to see her nose to nose with Daken, who had apparently just returned from his own scouting mission.

"It's not safe," Daken argued. "They haven't sent any patrols out — they are just _waiting_ for one of us to make a misstep."

"I'm _not_ going to make a misstep," she replied with her teeth clenched together. "I'm the one that finds the spots to hide. That is what I _do_ , so step off your giant ego and get _out. Of my. Way_."

It was clear pretty quickly, though, that Daken physically wasn't going to let her pass. When she tried to walk by him, he grabbed her around the shoulders and pulled her tightly to his chest. "You can't go out there," he insisted as his little sister let loose a growl that would have done her mother proud.

In a flash, she'd managed to reverse the situation on him, and he had his arm twisted behind his back as she twisted his wrist the wrong way. He knocked her feet out from under her, and as soon as she hit the ground, she lunged toward him. It was nothing but snarls and claws, and flashing teeth until she pulled a little maneuver that took a page out of both of her parent's books.

With a loud 'oof', Daken found himself flat on his back, with Elin standing on both of his wrists and her fist pressed against his chest. "I. Am. Going."

"And here you said you weren't in charge," Kurt said with a quiet chuckle.

She glanced over her shoulder at them and quickly took a step back from her half brother, letting him up. "I just need to get on this before something happens," she said. "And he's being a stubborn ass."

"We heard," Kate said, smirking as well.

"Perhaps he'd be able to relax if he joined you?" Kurt suggested.

"I don't need a babysitter," Elin argued with a frown.

"I could come with," Kate offered. "I could use the chance to stretch my legs."

But all three of them turned with a resounding 'no' in her direction, though Kurt's wasn't with nearly the fire that the other two had.

"Wow. Okay. Fine," Kate grumbled, her arms crossed over her chest. "I'll just go play _nursemaid_ then," she added as she spun on her heel.

"He can go … if I can borrow your bow," Elin called out.

That had Kate stopping in her tracks as she glanced over at Elin with a growing smirk. "Did I teach you? Tell me I taught you."

"Well, yeah, of course. Though Hawk-guy couldn't stay away from our little group for thirty seconds. Mom taught us how to do it on horseback too," Elin replied. "Clint didn't do nearly as well at that as you did. Something about upper body control … he wasn't as smooth."

Kate giggled delightedly as she snapped out her collapsible bow and handed it — and a quiver — to Elin. "I am _so_ looking forward to that."

"Then try to act surprised when it happens … or don't. Make a large wager. Whatever," she replied with a grin. She weighed the bow out in her hands and pulled an arrow before she looked up at her brother. "Okay. Don't slow me down, or I'll shoot you."

At that, Daken simply gave her a dry look as they headed for the exit.

"Atta girl," Kate called out over her shoulder before she took a few steps back, grabbed Kurt by the hand, and started to pull him along. "Come on, sweetheart. I'm starving." But her eyes were twinkling as she added, "We should try for a picnic."

"That sounds charming," he agreed with a matching sparkle as he let her pull her further inside.


	8. Let Her Go

**Chapter 8: "Let Her Go"**

It had been several hours since the two ferals had left, and all seemed eerily quiet all around their hideout. Daken was right. There were no patrols out. No one and nothing was on the street that wasn't totally necessary. It resulted in an odd feeling about the air that something was bound to go terribly wrong.

They were all increasingly on edge as they waited for Elin and Daken to return from their self-assigned mission, but no one was prepared when they could hear Daken all but screaming on his approach to the hideout for everyone to get out.

He burst into the church with Elin slung over his shoulder, and he barely paused for a breath before he called out again. " _Evacuate! Now!_ "

Those down below burst into action. Noh simply picked up America despite her protests to carry her out and Sying rushed over to make sure Krissy and the older Kurt were alright. He was certainly strong enough to pick up Kurt, but the younger version already had him, along with Kate — so he redirected and went to help Jubilee and Chance with Charlie, who still wasn't up to _running_ just yet.

"Take the back way!" Daken shouted almost desperately, with Elin staring wide-eyed and with tear streaks on her cheeks, still over his shoulder as he refused to set her down.

Krissy led the charge out of the underground tunnels, and they could hear the insistent chattering of very scared bamfs the closer they got to the exit — before they heard another sound as well, a familiar sort of growl. That only had the bamfs chattering faster and holding out their hands as close as they could get to the church grounds, just waiting for the others to get there so they could teleport them to safety.

Kurt looked over his shoulder at Daken and took a moment to slip out from underneath his older self's arm and run to meet Daken and Elin. "Elin, help Kate with the elder Nightcrawler, please. I have fought Logan before. Daken and I can keep him busy while you make sure everyone gets out safely." He only waited long enough for Daken to set Elin down before he teleported closer to the source of the growling — it didn't matter that the teleporting would give away their position when it was clear they were already compromised, after all.

Logan took one look Kurt's way and rushed him with what looked like no comprehension of who was in front of him, viciously snarling and slashing. For a moment, Kurt frowned at his old friend, upset at seeing him this way, before he had to teleport again to avoid the claws — this time reappearing behind him to wrap both arms and legs around Logan to keep him from using his arms.

"Logan, you've fought him off before," he said in his friend's ear even as he took a tighter grip. "I know you're fighting him now — stop this!"

When Logan didn't seem to respond, Daken rushed forward and hit him with all he had in an attempt to get him to at least lose consciousness. While it certainly staggered him for a moment, the blows only pushed Logan and Kurt further back until they were against the wall, and Kurt found himself telling Daken to stop; the force of the blows was impacting Kurt as well. After a few more solid hits, Logan managed to slip one arm loose. He threw Kurt off of his back and rushed Daken as Kurt tried to find another avenue to make him stop.

The two men had more or less cut Logan off from the others, but it was a toss up as to which way he was going to go. Kurt was covering the way back to the church, just by chance, and Daken was blocking the way to the rest of the refugees.

They watched for a moment as Logan sniffed the air and made his choice — to go right through Daken if need be. It was, tragically, not much of a fight, as Logan anticipated Daken's moves and for once in his life took the quickest route to get him out of his way — slashing him high and low one after the other, leaving his firstborn on the ground with a gash across his stomach and throat without so much as a backward glance as he headed forward with his hunt.

Kurt rushed forward to assess Daken, glancing toward Logan for a moment before he made his decision and scooped up the bleeding feral to teleport up to the rest of the group. "We're going to have company," he told them when they arrived, though he needn't have bothered — as it was clear once they reached the surface and the edges of the church property that Azazel had plenty of demons waiting for them once they'd been flushed out by Logan.

Those that were in fighting condition burst into action, while the little bamfs chattered away and quickly teleported anyone who was injured further from the action — though they didn't seem to be able to get very far, to their frustration, and they could be seen in little puffs of blue smoke teleporting from one rooftop to the next with their injured comrades.

It wasn't much longer before Logan made his way back up toward the church — clearly stalking them. Growling and glaring at all of them, he slowly moved forward, obviously trying to decide who was the right one to attack first.

Kate and Kurt had both positioned themselves in front of the kids, but they hadn't realized Chance had stepped slightly around them until several shots rang out, and they were both surprised to find that Chance had drawn two revolvers. He was a good shot, too, blasting Logan in the center of the chest with both shots.

Logan staggered backward and glanced down at his wounds. He looked like he might be starting to come out of it a bit, though it wasn't long before the bullets were pushed back out. He caught them in his hand before he looked up at Chance.

Chance jutted out his chin and looked Logan square in the eyes. "Back off, or I'll shoot you in the head, and I really, _really_ don't want to do that," he said, sounding a lot braver than the slight shaking would have suggested.

"Maybe you should," Logan suggested, though he looked like he was still struggling to keep whatever slim grip he had on his control.

Chance glanced at Elin for a second. "If I have to," he said, but he sounded much less decisive.

But Kurt had seen that Logan had some control, and he took a few steps closer, keeping a wary eye out but with a perfectly open expression. "Logan ... it's me. It's Kurt ... and Elin is here. So are the other kids, and Jubilee, and Noh-Varr." He glanced at Kate. "Kate's here too — Gateway sent us."

"Don't tell me anything," Logan almost hissed. "He'll just get it from me later."

But Kurt shook his head lightly, still gently approaching his friend. "I don't think he will," he said before he teleported in a blink, clapping a hand on his friend's shoulder as, with the other hand, he had his vial of holy water. And, just for good measure, he prayed as he poured the entire contents over his friend.

"Elf," Logan said, sounding incredibly worn. "That's a temporary solution."

"That will get us by until the next temporarily solution — and the next — until we find something more permanent," Kurt insisted.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I have to go back."

"Why?" Kurt teleported the two of them into a more private alley so they could talk away from the kids, his expression open. "Logan, what is he doing to you?"

"It's not me I'm worried about," Logan replied quietly, though he pointedly kept his eyes closed.

"Where is she?" Kurt asked just as quietly.

"You know how he collects information," Logan replied low.

Kurt let out a sigh. "I had to hope I could ask," he replied, then put a hand on Logan's shoulder. "Stay here, then. We'll find her. I need you to do one more thing for me, though." He didn't give Logan a second to respond to that before he teleported away, appearing moments later with Elin — and a bamf, in case there was trouble and the little guy needed to get Elin out of there. He didn't say anything except to mutter a few words in German to the little bamf to keep an eye on things before he teleported away, in search of K and his father.

Logan still hadn't opened his eyes, but Elin had taken a step forward and reached out to grab his hand. That was all the invitation Logan needed before he pulled her into a crushing hug and held her there for as long as he could manage, though he didn't make any promises that this was over by any stretch. Instead, he gave her a kiss on the cheek and told her not to say a word. "You can't tell me anything at all," he said at a whisper, and the two of them simply fell into a deep, warm, wordless hug that lasted for a good, long time.

There was a loud clatter a few minutes later, and Elin looked up from the hug to see that Kate had crashed down from a fire escape into the nearby dumpster. "WRONG FUTZING HAWKEYE!" she shouted at the top of her lungs as she climbed back out.

Logan couldn't help but chuckle at that. "That's what happens when you take his name. Sooner or later, it catches up."

He couldn't see Kate stick her tongue out at him, but she did. "Don't mind me, Hug Magnet and Hug Magnet Junior. You two carry on. I have revenge to carry out," she said as she flicked a wrapper off her shoulder and headed back toward the fight.

"Woah, hey, NO," Logan barked her way.

She rolled her eyes his way. "Um, we're pretty much busted? There is an all-out fight? I am _so_ helping. I'm not gonna let Kurt's dad _run over us_. You know I don't do sidelines."

"Kate," he half pleaded. "Don't."

At the tone in his voice, she paused and took a few more running steps his way to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Aww, you're so sweet when you worry about me," she said as she squeezed his arm.

"You don't know what he did to you," Logan said, shaking his head slow. "You know I never do this. _Please_. Don't."

"I know, I know, I died. It's okay," she said, kissing his cheek again. "We're gonna fix it, I promise. I have some of Tony's electro shockers, and you _know_ Azazel needs one of those in the face."

Logan looked like he was ready to argue again, but a new sound split the air in the streets — an angry sound that Kate recognized in the back of her mind as Kurt, but she'd never heard him make _any_ sound quite like that. She glanced over her shoulder at Logan with a deep frown before curiosity got the better of her, and she rushed to see what was going on.

And yes, there was Kurt, standing practically in the center of the street with all three swords raised and ready to fight, but he hadn't yet moved. He was all but shaking with rage instead, ]glaring at Azazel, who had one hand on K's shoulder with a very smug expression on his face. But Kate saw immediately what had infuriated Kurt when she noticed the little red-furred elflings giggling and cackling as they played around K's ankles. They were only a few years old at most, but it was clear that Azazel had a hand in raising them; they were practically chanting, "Hello, big brother!" at Kurt, their little giggles almost exactly like the bamfs.

"Let her _go_ ," Kurt snarled out through his teeth. "Stop hiding behind my old friends and face me."

"Who's hiding?" Azazel asked with a bit of a smirk. "You're the one who had to be driven from under the earth like an infestation." He smile widened as he waved his hand at a few demons, who in an instant set fire the the buildings around the church before the grounds of the church itself quickly were caught up in the blaze. "And what do you do with an infestation but smoke them out?"

The buildings in the city were already crumbling and old, and the fire spread quickly. The little group of resistance fighters was forced to run for cover from the fire — though the demons could pass through it easily, giving them an obvious advantage in the fight. Kate could see out of the corner of her eye that Krissy and the bamfs were working overtime trying to teleport everyone away from the fire, the smoke, and the demons even as she ran with Logan and Elin away from the crumbling buildings on either side of the alley where they had been hidden.

Kate was coughing into her hand when she hit the street, but she very nearly stopped in her tracks when she heard the high-pitched giggling stop and turn into little squeals. "Hello, mother!" the little red twins chanted, switching their focus from Kurt to Kate as they tumbled and giggled their way toward her with wide grins.

She froze and stared for a moment, her mouth parted as realization hit her. _Oh_.

"I tried to warn you," Logan muttered when both Kate and Kurt stopped flat in their tracks. "When the _futz_ are you gonna learn to listen?"

Azazel turned on hearing the little red twins' commotion, and his smile only widened when he saw Kate standing there with her mouth half open. "And here I thought you came alone, my boy," he chuckled out as Kurt growled low, poised to tear the living hell out of his father. "You didn't _tell_ me you brought company."

"Don't do it, Elf," Logan called out. "You gotta go back."

At that, K frowned and looked to Kurt with an expression of understanding, clearly realizing where _this_ Kurt was from. She searched the group for the other Nightcrawler, the look on her face shifting quickly to the one she had when she was coming up with some far-fetched, crazy plan.

Even livid beyond proper expression, Kurt still paused at Logan's word. But in the few moments that he took to consider his friend's warning, an arrow passed through the air over his shoulder toward Azazel — followed by three more that K had jumped forward to deflect, catch or just take the hit.

In the space of a few seconds, K hit the ground with Kate's electroshock arrow in her shoulder, and the shock knocked her out entirely as Kurt let out a snarl that echoed over the streets and he lunged for his father, who was grinning outright as he drew both swords to meet Kurt.

The clang of metal rang out in the air, louder even than the roar of demons trying to destroy their friends or the chattering of bamfs desperately teleporting everyone out of danger with the limited jumps they were able to do in Azazel's presence. There was none of Kurt's usual banter or showmanship; he seemed entirely focused on running the demon king through in any way he could, though the murderous rage only seemed to delight Azazel.

"I haven't seen you this worked up in _years_ ," Azazel said delightedly as the two clashed in the streets. It was a far more impressive sword fight than Kate had ever seen from the two of them, because they could both teleport now, and she found that she was having a hard time keeping track of the fight as plumes of red and blue smoke appeared all around the cityscape, mixing with the thick black smoke of the already blazing fire.

The little red toddlers were giggling madly as they ran from the flames to wake up their babysitter, pointing at the fight as it went on. "Oooh, Father's gonna kill him," one of them told the still-unconscious K.

Kate stared in horror at the delighted little kids for a moment before she rushed over to where K was, half convinced that she could get K out from under Azazel's control now that she'd gone down so hard. It was, she figured, the same principle as dropping her from a very high height. "C'mon, K. Wake up," she muttered, trying very hard to ignore the little kids around her, who were cackling delightedly.

The little twins got on either side of her and just like Krissy used to do, curled their tails around her wrists. "Play with _us_!" one of them insisted.

"Not _pet_. Us," the other one agreed.

Kate tried to come up with something to say in response, but she found that she couldn't — she didn't know what to do with these little half-demons. So instead, she looked around at the fight, searching for Kurt and Krissy first and foremost. Kurt was still fighting Azazel — _her_ Kurt, anyway. Both Krissy and the older Nightcrawler desperately worked to keep their friends from being engulfed in the flames around them, while Logan was doing what he could to keep Elin and the kids away from the demons that were trying to grab them.

Kate could feel the heat of the fires and glanced around, realizing with a sinking heart that the fire had completely encircled the block. The only way out was to teleport — and with Azazel screwing with the rules around here, even Krissy and the bamfs _and_ two Kurts were proving to be only just enough to do the job.

She watched as a demon burst from the flames on the other side of the block, its teeth bared, headed right toward Chance and Charlie as the young man tried to carry his sister to safety, a bamf on either shoulder. The twins disappeared in a plume of blue smoke a second before the demon would have torn them to shreds — and Noh appeared in their place a moment later to return the favor. An explosion shook the already unstable area as Noh simply blew the demon to pieces, and the bamfs took him to the next place.

Even as Kate continued to try and wake K, she could see similar scenes all around her. Azazel had an army, but even with the group of fighters still trying to protect their friends, they were more than a match for a few demons. Jubilee was enthusiastically blasting them to pieces, America had an arm around Sying's shoulder for support as he had a pair of his father's guns to keep anyone from getting too close… They were doing well.

It was easy to see how they'd survived for so long, even in this horrible, horrible timeline.

Then, suddenly, in a plume of red smoke, the sword fight found its way closer to where Kate and K were with the little kids - both combatants were fairly well matched, and Kate noticed with a proud smile that Kurt had even managed several good blows against his father, though he was fairly bloodied as well.

"Come on, boy, do try to make it more interesting," Azazel chuckled as, at last, he started to use powers besides his teleporting and simply blasted Kurt back for a moment - just because he could. "You come all this way and all you can do is snarl. All that talk of being more civilized and you're acting like those beasts you call friends."

Kurt let out another frustrated cry as he rushed for his father again, and the two disappeared, this time in a plume of blue smoke.

"What are you doing here?" K muttered suddenly as she picked her head up from the ground, distracting Kate's attention from the ongoing fights for a moment.

"Oh, good — you're awake," Kate said, breathing out a sigh of relief. She would have offered K a hand up, but she still had had both of the little red twins pulling on her to try and get her attention. She absently tickled one of them without thinking about it to get him to let go, but that just set off a whole round of giggles as they scrambled into her lap, demanding to be spoiled.

"No, what are you _doing_?" K asked, a whole lot more demanding in her tone as she sat up, looking almost horrified. "They're not _your_ little demon brats. Not really. Go home. _Fix this_."

"They just… they're just babies," Kate said, trying to wave K off. "Come on — Kurt has Azazel occupied. We can get out of here and regroup and—"

" _Do you want this to happen sooner_? Are you looking forward to him torturing you?" K looked positively pissed off. "Get him and get. OUT."

"I don't know _how_ to get home!" Kate countered. "So until we do, I'm gonna make this reality suck less, okay?"

"How?" she asked gesturing around them. "As long as he's running things, it's going to be this way. And letting Kurt get himself killed is only going to make it happen faster. _For you_."

"We got Logan back — we got you back. You're not under his control, so just… let's go!"

K shook her head and looked up at the fight. "You don't get it. If anything happens to you two while you're here? No. _Make_ a way back. You'll probably need to interrogate Mystique. Don't be nice. If she dies, I won't weep." A fight was starting to brew between Logan and a handful of massive demons nearby — big enough and impressive enough to get K to pause in her rant and smile slightly at the fight.

"Yeah, Krissy already told us about the kidnapping and the surprise coup and the everything awful. But apparently the guy who sent us here wants us to do something, so we're _doing_ things until he decides to bring us back."

K looked thoughtful for a moment, still watching her husband work as she weighed it out. "Gotta kill him to make any changes."

"That's the plan," Kate agreed, gesturing at Kurt. "Thus, my husband. The beautiful swordsman. And if we've got you two? Even better. So let's go get some holy water. Regroup. Let you snuggle Elin. And then kill my father-in-law dead as a doornail."

"Your order may be a bit off," K replied.

"Yeah, I'm hoping Kurt does that last one first," Kate agreed with a little smirk. She climbed to her feet with the little demon kids still hanging off of either arm by their tails. "Come on — let's go help your husband. He could probably use it."

K followed her, watching the sword fight with Azazel and Kurt as the two combatants teleported through the air in poofs of indigo and red smoke from rooftop to rooftop to alley and anywhere else they could manage. But as soon as Kate and K's retreat got her halfway close to Logan, he abandoned his fight and simply pulled K into a tight embrace that had Sying clearing his throat as he and America ended up nearby from teleporting away from the fire and demons.

"Is now really the time?" he asked with a small frown, but he was entirely ignored. He tried again, gesturing at the fire that was closing in on them. "We need to get out of here!" But when there was still no response, the bamf on Sying's shoulder just patted his cheek with a knowing sort of smile and teleported him and America out of there — and past the fires threatening to overtake the entire area.

When Logan and K finally let go for half a second, Elin rushed in, and the little family was at least for the moment reunited — not at all caring about the fires or the demons for as long as they could, until the fight caught up to them and all three of them went from hugging to fighting in an instant with an easy, wordless rapport of claws that Kate had never seen before.

Kate had to grin at the scene as she finally managed to get the little toddlers to let go of her. They started to play between themselves, trying to emulate the fight up above between Kurt and Azazel, with little taunts of "gonna kill you" that Kate wasn't sure if she was mad at or heartbroken by, but she was pretty sure she was generally _not_ okay with it.

In a poof of red smoke, the sword fight continued on the street level now, and the kids broke into little cackles when they saw how close they were to the action. Kurt had managed to bash away one of Azazel's swords, but he was also down to two as well, and even with one sword and a dagger gripped in his tail, it was clear Azazel — at his full power and even moreso since he took over the other side — was still a match for him.

With a flick of his wrist, Kurt very nearly managed to twist Azazel's second sword from his grasp, though before he could follow it up with a thrust from his second sword, Azazel blasted him backwards into the wall of a nearby building, which threatened to crumble on top of him even as Kurt shook his head and got back to his feet, teleporting out of the way an instant before the wall came down. But when Kurt teleported to Azazel's position, his father had anticipated the move and lunged forward where Kurt reappeared.

Kate could hear the echoing clatter of metal as Kurt's swords hit the ground before his knees did, his mouth slightly parted and an expression of pain and surprise on his face as Azazel pulled his swords back, red with his blood.

"Disappointing," Azazel tutted as he drew back once more.

Kate really wasn't thinking about anything other than the fact that Kurt was _hurt and bleeding_ and Azazel was going to _finish him off_ as she ran forward and drew her own sword to block his blade from running Kurt through again. "Don't you touch him," she practically snarled as she took the sword in both hands to match the strength of his blow.

"If you wanted to dance, my dear, you had only to ask," Azazel said in a far too intimate tone; he seemed entirely delighted by this turn of events.

She glared at him hard before she snuck half a glance at Kurt to make sure he was even still _alive_ , though even that moment cost her as he sprang forward and she only just parried his strike in time. "See how well you dance when I cut off important things and shove them places you didn't know you had places," she growled through her teeth, though she took several steps back as she tried to draw him away from the badly injured Kurt — and tried to ignore that Azazel looked almost like he was practicing and not really trying all that hard as he sprang forward to engage her in a fight.

Logan and K shared a look, and K rushed forward to check on Kurt, shaking her head as she put some pressure on the wound and gave him such a _look._ "You should know better," K growled out low. " _Stupid_ Blueberry Stud Muffin."

Krissy had teleported nearby to get the rest of them out of the slowly shrinking circle of fire — half of their forces were beyond it now, waiting to regroup with the others once everyone had been teleported out now that K and Logan were thinking for themselves — but when she saw what was going on, she teleported beside K with wide eyes. "Don't let him die," she whispered out as she moved to help K. " _Please_ don't let him win again."

"Do you hear that?" K grumbled to Kurt as she checked to see if the bleeding had stopped. "What possessed you?"

He managed a little look her way with one eyebrow raised. "He should _not_ have touched either of you," he said in a hoarse voice that rang with pure anger, though his expression tempered when he saw the look Krissy had on.

K sat back on her heels and put her hands on her knees for a moment. "You and your idiot best friend. I swear to God you share a brain sometimes." She leaned forward and kissed his temple. "Get out of here. Go home. I will personally make sure your father dies."

"Let me help," Krissy offered, drawing both of her swords and looking toward where Azazel was clearly toying with Kate. Her tail was switching angrily behind her as she tracked their movement across the burning blocks. "I can keep up with him if he teleports."

" _You_ need to stay as far away from this as possible," K warned before she called out to Logan: "Come help your idiot friend, love!" With a sigh that spoke of how desperate the situation was, she looked up toward Kate. "Quit playing around with him!"

"I'll step up my game when you get him somewhere safe!" Kate responded without missing a beat, though it was fairly obvious to anyone watching that she was trying her very best and still losing, edging ever close to the fires burning everywhere as Azazel chuckled at her attempts to dodge both the burning debris and his strikes.

Several of the bamfs looked like they wanted to try to help Kate, little poofs of smoke all around the block — but those brave enough to get even close to Azazel found themselves either blasted away or quickly teleporting back, rubbing their little foreheads with closed fists and wide eyes. They wanted to help — but they didn't want to get taken over, either. So instead, they focused on trying to teleport any debris out of the way so Kate at least had a semi-even playing field.

K and Logan gently picked up Kurt between them to keep him more or less upright, with Elin and Krissy watching their backs the whole way. They would have handed him off to a bamf, but the little guy disappeared and instead came back a moment later with the older Nightcrawler, who took in the whole scene — his injured younger self, Kate's losing fight, the two clearly worried teenagers — with wide eyes before he moved to help his younger, nearly unconscious self. "I've got him."

It was an odd thing for K to shift the young, injured Kurt over to his older, frailer self, but the hand-off happened all the same, with the older Nightcrawler slipping an arm underneath his younger self while Logan still supported him on the other side. "Please, take care of yourself," K told the older Nightcrawler before she turned to give Logan a lingering kiss. "We have to get him out of here, love."

"I can clear a path," Logan agreed with a nod. He handed over his position of supporting the injured Kurt to Elin before he and Daken started to work together in tandem, pushing back demons from the group with a ferocity that the two of them had perfected.

K watched them go with a little smirk and nodded to herself. She still didn't have a plan gelled, but one was starting to form. "Krissy, sweetheart, I need to have you get your mom away from Grandpa Jackass," she said evenly. "I only need to distract him for a second."

Krissy twirled both swords in her hands and nodded. "You got it, Aunt K."

K watched the motion for a moment and drew in a deep breath. "I don't think we're looking at this the same way. Can I borrow your swords?"

Krissy looked surprised for a moment before she nodded gently. "If you promise to run him through," she said.

"I don't think you should," Elin said with a frown. "Not if you're going to start something. And I can see you're going to start something."

"I didn't start it; I just want to finish it," K told her before she gave her a kiss on the forehead and cupped her face in one hand for a moment before she turned to Krissy. "I can't guarantee that I'll run him through with the _sword_."

"Or claws; I'm not picky," Krissy said with a smirk that looked just like Kate.

She gave both Kurts and Elin another quick kiss that had the trio frowning the slightest her way. "Love you," she said to Elin as earnestly as possible. "Take care of them," she instructed seriously before she picked up the swords and started to run for the ongoing sword fight.

She was nearly up to them when the sound of the two swords edges rang out slowly — and in a graceful arc, Kate's sword flew through the air. Kate watched it sail for a moment, dismay painted all over her face, before she found herself staring very suddenly at the tip of Azazel's blade.

Kate flinched, waiting for the blow, but just like that, someone breezed past her, and the sound of the fight continued. She didn't realize what had happened at first because, an instant later, she was surrounded by purple smoke as Krissy got her out of there, but when she joined a _very_ relieved-looking pair of Kurts and Elin, she finally saw that K had taken Krissy's swords to engage Azazel.

"Is Kurt alright?" Kate asked before anybody could get mad at her — and it looked like they were about to get mad at her, all things considered.

"He lost a lot of blood," Krissy said, her tone matching Kate's nearly exactly so that Elin couldn't argue when both of them were worried over Kurt.

The older Nightcrawler shifted his younger self for a moment and then reached for Kate seemingly without thinking about it, one hand cupping her cheek as he asked, "What were you thinking, _V_ _ö_ _gelchen_?" in nearly a low growl.

"I was thinking I'm _not_ losing my husband," she said with steel in her eyes as she met his gaze. "You'd do the same, and you know it."

He held her gaze for a moment longer before his tone softened entirely. "Of course I would," he said. "And I did."

At that, Kate fell silent and focused her attention on making sure that _her_ Kurt was alright, as he looked very pale, and it seemed like the only things keeping him upright was Elin, his older self, and the determination to see what was happening with K and his father. But as Kate watched, his head drooped several times, and she wasn't sure he was even really processing it — he definitely wasn't fully conscious at any rate.

The fight beyond them was vicious and fast, and though Azazel teleported a few times, he was quite irritated to find that K could predict his reappearance. Every time he tried it, he was greeted by a thrust that he would very barely dodge. The two of them were fighting fast and fierce enough that there was no time for banter while K worked out a little frustration and growled the whole way through it. Of course, Azazel was using all of his tricks, and K was simply getting more pissed off as the battle continued — all the way up until they managed to lock up their blades and they were both trying to power through each other, nose to nose and glaring hard.

But then K smirked and popped her claws before she quickly, roughly twisted her wrist, cutting through his sword blades without any real effort — leaving Azazel unarmed and K with claws and swords.

He looked positively thunderous, snarling at the look on her face, even though, acting true to form, K did not gloat, but rather stepped back with both arms outstretched in an invitation for him to give it another shot.

His lips curled back in a sneer as, now without his swords, he simply blasted her back several yards, the disdain etched in his expression and his voice and he said, "You know how tedious it is when you try to slip your leash. I do hope the others learn from your example before I put you down like the dog you are when I'm through with them _and_ with you." He blasted her one more time for good measure with a satisfied sort of smirk before he simply teleported to where the others were, wrenching Kate from the older Kurt with a wide smile before either of them could react as both Krissy and Elin cried out in surprise and dismay.

He teleported back to where the little half-demons were — and for as ill-behaved as they usually were, when they saw him, they were quick to straighten up and fall in with him. "We'll be leaving now," he told K, both of Kate's wrists in one of his hands, his tail wrapped around her for good measure, keeping her close even as she tried to put distance between them.

"Wait," K called out, almost desperately — the tone one that none of them had heard, and enough to get Azazel to take pause. "Let her go."

Azazel just laughed at that and took Kate in a tighter grip, despite Kate's squirming and swearing. "Come along then, pet — if you're so concerned."

"I will go with you _willingly_ if you let her go," K told him. "I won't fight you."

He considered that for a moment with a little smirk. "A tempting offer," he said. "But a deal that I think you'd break in a heartbeat."

"She doesn't belong in this time, and you already know what that will give you," K replied, the tone one that Kate recognized from the incidents on Hala as her best deal making, approachable tone. "Between the two of us, I'm not the one that lies."

"K, no," Kate started to say, though she stared openly as K retracted her claws and dropped both swords in a clatter then held her hands out palms up.

"I'll go peacefully." K watched Azazel as he was clearly thinking it over. "You and I both know the trade is more than fair. Feel free to search for deception. There are no loopholes."

He smirked as Kate wriggled in his grasp, trying to get free. "Don't be an idiot, K," she half growled her friend's way. "We'll figure something else out — don't be _stupid_."

But a slow grin spread over Azazel's face. "Anything I say," he said softly K's way.

"If that's what it takes."

The grin widened, and he finally released his grip on Kate, all but tossing her aside, only to teleport to K, grab hold of her arm and wrap his tail around her waist. An instant later, both of them and the kids — and most of his demons — were gone in a poof of red before anyone else could do anything about it.


	9. This Cannot Stand

**Chapter 9: "This Cannot Stand"**

As soon as Azazel was gone, Krissy teleported to Kate, looking like she half-expected Azazel to come back for them before she very quickly teleported them out of there. With Azazel gone, the bamfs were able to move further, too, and it seemed they were leading the way as they all ended up in Hell's Kitchen again. The bamfs pointed out a little church on the corner of the street, and both Krissy and the older Kurt simply followed the path Logan and Daken were setting behind the bamfs.

The first priority was, of course, getting the younger Kurt somewhere stable — and setting Charlie up somewhere safe as well. K had done an excellent patch job, but Noh wanted to look Kurt over himself, and the rest of the group was kicked out while he worked. It was the first chance they'd had to really take stock of each other and what had happened.

They weren't quite settled into the church when Logan finally stopped for a moment and looked around the group with a frown. "Where's K? I thought she was right with us?"

The rest of the group began to look among themselves, and Daken even went toward the door to go back outside to see if she'd fallen behind when Kate spoke up.

"You were right. He… I shouldn't have been out there ... he went right for me, and I shouldn't have let him, and…" Kate looked somewhere between terrified and livid as she tried to find the right words. She took a deep breath, clearly a step away from crying and almost unconsciously rubbing her wrists. "She said ... she said she'd go with him willingly. Do anything he asked … if he let me go."

Logan stared at her with an unreadable expression as he locked his jaw and started to almost pace, fists clenching and unclenching as he tried to keep from letting out the roar of frustration.

"We can't let him," the elder Nightcrawler said with a bit of fire in his gaze that hadn't been there in a long time.

"He's not gonna let her out of his reach," Logan said quietly as he paced, his growl getting more prevalent as he moved.

"Then… we'll go to him," Nightcrawler reasoned, his jaw set as he made up his mind. He watched Logan for a moment. "You and I together — we'll bring vengeance raining down on his head for everything he's done."

Logan paused just long enough to nod his head. "Unless she can pull a hat trick and kill him," he muttered mostly to himself.

"I'm sure that's what she's planning," Nightcrawler said softly as he took a small step toward his best friend.

"Oh, I know that's what she's planning," Logan half snarled, turning his way with all the rage and fury he was capable of — though it wasn't directed at Nightcrawler. "I just don't like the way she put herself on the damn line to do it. _She knows_ what he wants."

Nightcrawler nodded softly. "What he has always wanted," he agreed in a breath. He couldn't help but think of the twins Kate had carried for him… but he knew as well that Azazel was after more than torture here. Healing teleporters, especially ones with claws… those would be devastating weapons for the demon king.

Kate looked between the two men for a moment, not quite following the silent conversation, before she let out a breath. "So ... how do we find her?"

"They're not gonna be where they were before, that's for damn sure," Logan growled, the fury obviously solidifying as the seconds ticked by.

Chance poked his head out for a moment once Charlie had been situated. "But he's not going to be too far, either," he said quietly. He shoved his hands on his pockets and leaned forward the slightest bit as he let out a breath. "He'll stay in the area."

"What makes you so sure of that?" Logan asked, pausing after he kicked part of a pew a few aisles over.

Chance looked toward the pew for a moment before he shrugged. "Well. He didn't promise to leave anyone alone," he pointed out. "He just made a trade. And now he knows that all the Wagners and Howletts are in one group."

"And he wants all of us," Logan finished with a clear growl.

Chance nodded quietly. "So he's got to be close. He's not going anywhere. And if we can't find her in time, he'll make sure to be visible too. To gloat." He wasn't looking at Elin or Logan as he said it, his hands in his pockets and his gaze on the ground. But he let out a bit of a sigh and looked toward the safest face in the room — Sying. "But we'll get there first."

"I can start running through the city," Sying offered. "I'm not as fast as my Dad yet, but it doesn't draw as much attention as teleporting."

"Look for something lavish," Logan told him. "Theatres, opera halls, and top floor penthouses in skyscrapers."

"And do _not_ let him see you or try to fight him," Krissy added with a glare. "In case you get any bright ideas watching my _parents_."

"He'll be _occupied_ ," Logan said through clenched teeth. "Celebrating his win."

"Not for long," Sying promised before he gave the group a confident grin and took off at a run to start combing through the city.

With Sying out looking around, at least something was being done, and that seemed to decide it for Kate as she stepped back from the older Nightcrawler and slipped over to where Noh and Jubilee were finishing their patch-up job with _her_ Kurt. "He okay?" she asked quietly, leaning against the door frame.

"He will be; nothing vital was hit," Jubilee promised as she brushed the hair out of her face. "I think most of his bleeding was because he was so … pissed off. Raised blood pressure. All that."

Kate nodded at that as she shouldered in to sit next to Kurt. "I… don't think I've ever seen him that mad," she said quietly as she ran a hand through Kurt's hair.

"It is a rare and wondrous bit of rage Elf," Jubilee agreed. "And if it happened more often, he'd probably have died from a stroke when he was in his twenties."

"Don't make jokes like that in this crummy timeline," Kate said, shaking her head before she very carefully leaned in to kiss Kurt's cheek. "I just … I want to kill his dad, but I just… want to go home."

"I believe the two things may be linked," Noh told her.

She looked up at him and seemed very tired. "Probably," she muttered. "So let's do that. Fast. _Please_."

"Well, we have Logan on our side, and that … is a step in the right direction," Jubilee said. "Would have been nice to have K too …"

"We'll have her soon enough," Noh said softly.

"The good news is that we won't have to fight her," Jubilee said. "At least, I'm going to count it as good news." She nodded to herself. "You know, even after all this time, she's a lot sneakier than I gave her credit for. This might work still. If he wants to safeguard his… ugh… his _future_ _weapons_ , then she's not going to be out fighting."

Noh glanced up at her for a moment and tipped his head to the side. "You know…." He let out a sigh. "You may be right."

"When are you going to realize that is always the case, sweetheart?" Jubilee countered with one hand on her hip.

"Oh, I have always known this," Noh said, pulling her a bit closer to kiss her forehead.

Kate smirked at the two of them. "At least that hasn't changed," she teased.

"The me being right or the sneaky ferals?" Jubilee asked. "Because both are true. You can set your watch to them."

"The you two being sparkly and sweet and just… unable to stop," Kate teased.

"Unable?" Noh said with a tiny smile at the corner of his mouth. "Why would we want to?"

"This is entirely true," Kate teased, leaning over to give her own husband a kiss on the forehead. Her eyes glittered for a moment before she climbed into the little makeshift cot beside Kurt and curled in beside him.

"Come and get me if you have any trouble," Noh told her as he and Jubilee headed toward the door. "But he should sleep through the night."

"Well that's no fun," Kate tried to tease, but she only curled in tighter, clearly content to go to sleep with him, and Jubilee and Noh shared a look before they moved away to give the two of them a little privacy.

* * *

Noh had joined Sying in running through the city overnight, and neither of them were back yet. So everyone was on alert just waiting for the word on where to go. The elder Nightcrawler made sure to spend plenty of time with Elin, as Logan and Daken were starting to get antsy. Elin was too, but… Nightcrawler hadn't seen her in some time, and he wanted to make sure she was alright.

He found Krissy talking quietly with the twins in Charlie's new room, and after that, he gently peered into the hidden room where the younger him was recovering. He was awake by then, but he hadn't moved, as Kate was curled up beside him, and Nightcrawler remembered that she protested strenuously if he had ever woken her up earlier than she _had_ to wake up.

The younger Kurt shifted slightly and sat up a bit with a small smile. "She's exhausted. She'd likely sleep through an entire fight without stirring."

"I recognize the drool pattern," Nightcrawler teased as he pulled up a chair. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was stabbed by my father," Kurt said with a small smirk.

"Oh, so the usual every other month drama," Nightcrawler said with a wave. "It shall pass soon enough then."

"Yes, well, I got used to recovering faster having Tyler around," Kurt teased. "We've been terribly spoiled since he joined the team."

"I'm afraid he's been tied up with Hawkeye and Widow," he replied. "A full time job even when it's not wartime."

"No kidding," Kurt chuckled quietly. He shifted the slightest bit and let out a sigh. "Is Gerry with them? Or ... Zoe, _ja_? That's their little one together?"

"Yes," Nightcrawler said with a nod. "They are a formidable group."

"Just with Natasha alone it's formidable," Kurt chuckled. "As I've been told multiple times by both Hawkeyes."

"Yes, but they are incredibly biased," Nightcrawler said with a little laugh.

"Yes, but don't tell them so," Kurt agreed, smiling fondly at Kate for a moment before he looked up at his older self. "And you — how are you feeling? You can't have had much time to recover before we thrust you back into this."

"If we can win this, then I can survive anything," Nightcrawler replied. "Logan is … determined."

"Then you _will_ win this," Kurt said decidedly. "When he is determined, and when we are together — well. That's it."

"Yes, just a simple matter of time," he agreed.

The younger Kurt nodded and then paused for a moment. "Can I ask ... what happened after I was injured?"

"You got a stern talking to," Nightcrawler said, doing his best approximation of a stern expression. "And Kate dove in to defend you."

Kurt frowned for a moment at that. "Of course she did," he breathed out.

Nightcrawler watched Kate as she slept on. "She did a fine job — even if he was only toying with her."

"She always does," Kurt agreed.

The older Nightcrawler glanced up to meet Kurt's gaze. "She lost the fight. He was going to take her with him."

"What happened?" Kurt asked, almost unconsciously pulling Kate a bit closer to him.

"Our best friend's idiot wife made a trade," he replied.

Kurt's mouth dropped open for a moment before he looked positively furious and almost tried to sit up. "When are we going after her?"

"As soon as we figure out where he's keeping her," Nightcrawler replied. "Logan was on the edge of losing control until Noh pointed out something important." He leaned forward, and a sparkle of trouble danced in his eyes. "She took both herself and Logan out of the fight against us."

Kurt thought about it for a moment before he leaned back down and let out all his breath. "She _has_ to stop making plans like that without telling any of us."

"You haven't figured it out yet then?" Nightcrawler laughed, his hands folded in front of him. "She makes it up as she goes and trusts that it will come together. It's the only reason Logan didn't rush right back out after her. She's amazingly good at it."

"I've suspected as much," Kurt teased. "But it's nice to have it confirmed."

"I don't think she could express all of what she's thinking as it happens. It is an act of pure faith and trust," he said, the spark of trouble still dancing in his eyes. "But Azazel will have his attention on her … until he realizes that he's down both ferals as fighters."

"Well," Kurt said. "It sounds like you have an opening."

"He has relied on them for protection for far too long," he said. "We have a very good opening."

"I wish I could come with you," Kurt said honestly. "I'd like to help you kill him. To be honest, it would be… freeing to be able to do it here when I can't in my own time." He glanced down at the still-sleeping Kate as he added. "You can't bring her either."

"No, of course not," he agreed. "But when you return ... when you go back to your time…" Nightcrawler let his gaze drift back down to Kate again, the anguish still fresh in his expression. "Cherish every second. Losing her as early as I did was nothing short of criminal, but even if we'd had fifty years, it would have been just as heartbreaking."

Kurt nodded seriously, his gaze on his sleeping wife for a moment. "Yes. I'm frequently reminded that every day with her is a gift from God," he said quietly.

"I'm glad to hear that," he replied with a tired smile before he got to his feet, wrenching his gaze away from Kate at last as he did so. "I'll leave you to rest. You're going to need it with her."

"Is that why you're going so gray?" Kurt couldn't help but tease.

Nightcrawler smiled his way and tipped his head to the side a bit. "Likely that … that and the girls. They wear one down."

"Yes, they had us surrounded when first we came to this time," Kurt chuckled quietly.

"They likely could have taken you down too," he said with a proud smile. "Little Elin packs a punch when she wants to."

"And Krissy has grown up just like her mother," Kurt said, smiling softly.

"Of course," Nightcrawler said with a light chuckle. "All her talents and sass."

"And her looks," Kurt added. "The fur, the tail, the powers — those are mine, or yours, I suppose — but everything else is Kate's."

"Yes, that's true. All of it," he said. "And Elin looks like her mother — but the coloring and everything else …" He shook his head with a sigh.

"Yes, she is very much like her father," Kurt said, though he frowned the slightest bit. "And in some cases, she is far too young for that."

"Then I'm afraid I'll have to disagree — since in _all_ cases, she is too young."

Kurt had to nod his agreement for a moment before he tipped his head at his older self. "How long was she in your care?"

"From the initial attack," he replied. "It all happened in one fell swoop. She lost her whole family that day, in one way or another."

Kurt's eyes narrowed as he considered it. "I didn't know it all happened at once," he said softly.

"He had to take the two of them while they were in shock," Nightcrawler said. "I barely got her teleported out in time, or he would have had her too."

"I haven't met him yet in my time — her little brother," Kurt said with a small sigh.

"He was the opposite of her," Nightcrawler said with a fond smile. "He looked like his father — with his mother's attitude about life."

"It sounds like he was primed for causing trouble with the rest of them," Kurt said softly. He shook his head. "These children — they're truly amazing. You've done a good job with all of them."

"They did it all," he said. "We simply tried to keep them from being captured and from losing faith … something that did not go so well after I was gone, it seems. But ... Jubilee, Noh, and America did their best."

"You know with Jubilee around there was always _some_ optimism," Kurt said with a quiet smile. He tipped his head at his older self. "But now you are back. And your daughter — I've only seen her for a few days, but the difference is plain to see. She's so much happier now."

"As odd as it would sound to anyone else, it can only get better once her grandfather is dead," Nightcrawler replied with a little smirk.

"Our family has never been quite normal," Kurt chuckled.

"Entirely true." He shook his head and turned to leave. "Sleep well."

"Tell me before you leave to fight him," Kurt requested.

"I will," he said with a nod. "We may need to move you elsewhere before the battle begins anyhow."

Kurt nodded. "Yes — don't let me become a liability to you." He gestured to Kate. "And I'll do everything I can to make sure she doesn't try to join you anyway. You know how she can be about being left behind."

Nightcrawler laughed outright — the first time truly laughing that Kurt had heard. "You say that as if you have any say in it."


	10. Everyone Under Eighteen and Kate

**Chapter 10: "Everyone Under Eighteen and Kate"**

It had been some time before Noh finally returned with good news. He'd found where the demons were clearly congregating and had even been sure to creep up the side of the old opera house to peer inside long enough to spot the ornate throne — but there was still no sign of Sying even after Noh returned.

Dawn approached and still... no sign of the other sparkling darling. So, the decision was made that perhaps it was time to start looking for him.

Daken and Logan both were preparing to head out and track him down by scent alone if necessary when their ranks were increased by six.

It didn't happen all at once, as Sying had to take them in one and two at a time. To start with, Sying had both Zoe Barton and Tammy McCoy on his shoulders, and he was panting the slightest bit as he very quickly explained, "We needed more backup," before he ran off again.

The two men shared a look before Zoe rushed over and flung her arms around Logan's neck in a hug. "What's with the brown hair, little darlin'?" he asked as he squeezed her back — the girl was thin and had freckles as brown as her hair, and while the freckles were normal, the hair color was not. "I thought you liked red."

"Yeah, but I was trying to draw off some demons a while ago. Looked like Aunt K," she explained with a smirk. "And… I got stuck in the transition. Hair should change back to red _eventually_."

"Why would you draw them off looking like her?" Logan asked with a frown. "Didn't he tell you what happened?"

"Yeah, but this was yesterday, and the demons are stupid," she said. "And it was _early_ yesterday, and they thought their boss's bodyguard was there?" She grinned widely. "And Dad set off a beautiful explosion. Thanks, Daken, for the holy water bomb idea, by the way. Works great." She waved the tips of her fingers at Daken.

"My pleasure," he replied before he tipped his head toward the hallway. "The girls are down there. I'm sure they'll want to see you."

"I'm sure they'll want to see Gerry too," Zoe said with a smirk before she fell into a more serious expression. "How's Charlie? Could she use a little Barton cheer?"

"Long as you keep your bandages to yourself — knock yourself out," Logan teased.

"Hey, you must be talking about Gerry," Zoe teased right back.

He reached over and picked up her wrist, which had a wrap almost up to her elbow. "Really, now?"

She rolled her eyes and tried to snatch her arm back. "Growing pains," she said. "I'm still getting used to the powers."

"Yeah, and your Dad must be sixty feet tall by now."

"You know he hasn't been Goliath for years," Zoe shot back without missing a beat as Sying came skidding to a stop, this time just with one passenger — Tyler.

"You sure you don't want your dad's help?" Logan asked Sying when he saw how the boy was trying to get a breath. "He's not doing anything."

"It took me ages to find a way into their hideout that wouldn't give us away," Sying panted. "So ... I'll be right back." With that, he zipped off again, leaving Tyler to shake his head at the young half-Kree.

But once Sying was gone again, Tyler took a few long strides and picked Logan up in a crushing hug. "Heard you were back."

"Yeah, new addition to the old crew," he agreed. "And a couple more too. Injured Elf thataway." He tipped his head toward the doors that would take him to Kurt simply because Tyler had his arms pinned.

"I heard he was back too," Tyler nodded. "Or… there were two of them? Sying tried to talk about temporal something but… it went over my head."

" _Put me down_ and I'll explain it on the way," Logan offered, which finally got Tyler to do exactly that, looking a bit sheepish for how pleased he was to see Logan.

Tammy slipped over to follow the two of them, pulling her arm through Tyler's as she did. "What about…" She looked over her shoulder at Zoe and dropped her voice. "Sying mentioned Kate, but I didn't want to ... I mean... "

"Long story short?" Logan said low. "Gateway brought them here to fix things. Both of them. We have a pretty young Kurt and Kate here." With that, he pushed open the door to the room where Kurt was injured and Kate was clearly fussing over him.

But Kate looked up when Tyler and Tammy opened the door and broke into the _widest_ grin as she threw her arms around both of them. "What are you two doing here?" she asked, beaming.

"Heard you busted your Elf," Tyler told her in a low timbre. "Figured I'd fix him up for you — or it's not fun otherwise."

She grinned wider and hugged him again before she noticed the way he and Tammy were attached and giggled. "Oh. Oh, I swear I'll be good and not tell past you about this, but I _so called it_ ," she said.

"Everyone called it," Logan corrected. "Now, you want your Kurt fixed or not? I think this one'll be a quicker fix than the other one."

"Yes, please, fix them both," Kate agreed quickly, stepping back to let Tyler into the room. "They both need it. The other one is skinny and just... " She shook her head and then gestured to her Kurt. "And this one got himself stabbed."

As Tyler worked on healing Kurt, Sying arrived with Natasha and Gerry, taking both of them further back to where Charlie was so that Gerry could cheer her up, though Natasha stole away to see what Logan was up to as soon as Sying put her down, both eyebrows up when she saw that, yes, there was a younger Kate and Kurt.

"Clint is going to melt," she whispered to Logan.

"How is that new?" he asked over his shoulder to give her a look.

She grinned at that, nodded thoughtfully, and broke into something like a relieved little giggle as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I missed you," she told him.

"I missed everyone," he replied, covering her wrist with his hand and tipping his head to rest against hers.

"Have you seen Zoe yet?" she asked, still hugging him from behind and resting her head on his shoulder. "I don't know what you remember from your time with Azazel — but you know she discovered her powers a year ago, _da_?"

"I heard about it from other sources," he told her. "But I saw her when she came in. And her wrapped wrist."

"You would have been proud of her," Natasha said. "It was her idea to shapeshift into your wife and confuse them. We killed over three dozen demons last week alone."

"How'd they react when they saw her?" Logan asked — out of curiosity.

"Well, they're used to you two being close to Azazel," Natasha pointed out. "So they tried to… I don't know that I'd say they tried to be on their best behavior, but as close as you can get with demons. It made them easier targets when they were looking for their boss to try to grovel at his feet and not expecting us to burst through the windows and kill them."

"They must have been lower level then," Logan said. "All of the ones that have spent more than a few minutes around us know to scatter and keep their distance."

"Well, you haven't been out west," Natasha said. "Not much anyway. He's trying to run us out with overwhelming force. I think it irks him that he can't get rid of us."

"Likely," he agreed. "Hey. Is that boy gonna make it back alright with Clint, or is he gonna need a leg healed or something just from association?"

She rolled her eyes and smacked him in the arm. "Be nice. You know he's getting slower with age," she teased.

"Always makin' excuses. What was it when he was spending half his time in a dumpster?"

"I wasn't around to keep him out of trouble," she said.

"Well that sums up his life in one sentence doesn't it?" he teased.

She chuckled as, at last, Sying and Clint arrived to round out the little group, and she didn't even hesitate to gently pull on Logan's arm to keep him out of Clint's way as the graying archer ran right to where Kate was and all but bowled her over in a hug.

Kate laughed as she hugged him back. "Aww, did you miss me?" she teased, but he didn't tease her back at all.

"Yes," he replied softly as he hugged her that much tighter.

Tyler looked up from where he'd finished up with Kurt. "Alright, well, as soon as I can work on our Nightcrawler, it looks like we're all here, right?" He looked to Sying, who looked pretty winded but just nodded.

"Great; when do we leave?" Kate asked.

All of them stared at her for a moment, but it was Logan that broke the silence. " _We_ leave when we have everyone in one room. _You_ will stay here with Krissy, Elin, and Charlie," Logan said. "And maybe baby Kurt too if I'm feelin' cautious."

"Baby Kurt, really?" Kurt chuckled his friend's way.

"Compared to how I'm used to seeing you? Yeah. Baby Kurt," Logan replied.

"So he's, what, five to my four and a half?" Kate teased.

"Oh, he's six. But compared to Grampa Kurt, he's a baby," Logan countered.

"But you're gonna need teleporters," Krissy argued as she crawled down from the ceiling, where she had been trying to sneak in on the conversation.

"Bamfs," Logan replied.

"Come on, Logan — we've been fighting him this whole time!" Krissy argued.

"And not winning this whole time," he said quickly.

"What about Chance? Or Sying? Or Zoe and Gerry?" Krissy asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

"That's up to their parents, isn't it now?" Logan replied. He looked around the room as the kids began to gather around him, and he knew he had a problem brewing. "Here's what's gonna happen. Everyone under eighteen and Kate go with Daken so he can explain to you exactly what's going to happen if you're captured."

"It might take some time," Daken said in an easy drawl. "There are different objectives with different prisoners."

"Take your time," Logan said. "And don't spare the details."

"And I have to go because, what, you think I didn't get the message with the demon kids and the death thing? Because I'd like to point out I am _not_ the only one in this group who's been captured by that guy," Kate said with her arms crossed. "He captured you and Kurt, and you're both going."

"He doesn't want to _screw_ me or Kurt," Logan countered with a glare that she wasn't used to having him aim at her.

But it was Zoe who reached over and grabbed Kate by the arm, her expression determined as she pulled Kate along. "You're an idiot, Aunt Katie," she said in a tone she'd clearly learned from her mother. "Come on. You're _going_ to listen to Daken, and then you're going to stay with Charlie after he scars everyone. Okay? Okay."

* * *

As it turned out, the kids and Kate emerged from Daken's very detailed description — not only of what had happened to Kate but of what would happen to each of them — without any good argument for coming along, so they ended up all piling in Charlie's room.

Gerry, somehow the first to bounce back from everything they'd heard, hopped right up next to Charlie and cheerfully began to fill her in on everything that had happened out west with his parents and Natasha and some other assorted heroes. And Charlie, for her part, leaned into Gerry and listened to him tell stories as she let his endless energy and optimism calm her down against the shocked kids around them.

But the rest of the group — the adults and parents that _weren't_ Kate — waited just long enough to be sure none of the teens tried to sneak out and come along anyway despite the graphic warnings before they slipped outside to meet up with the bamfs.

"Are they still there?" the older Nightcrawler asked the bamfs, who seemed unable to stop hugging him once he was out in the open. When the bamfs nodded and chattered at him, he turned to the others. "He's going to know we're there the moment we 'port in, so be ready for a fight." When the others nodded at that, he looked to his little friends, and in an instant, the entire group appeared in the opera house as close as the bamfs could get them to Azazel's throne.

Logan, for one, didn't wait to orient himself before he started swinging, slicing through two demons before they realized what had happened. Both Kurts had all three swords out, and though the older one was clearly a bit rusty from having been held captive for so long, they were both dealing massive damage. Tyler was simply bashing through demons, claws out and snarling, as Tammy was picking up every chair in the opera house to hurl at anything that belonged in Hell. And Jubilee and Clint were doing a fine job making sure there were plenty of explosions all around as Daken gave Natasha a boost up to the balcony so that she could get the drop on a few demons that were trying to get past America, who was solving the broken leg problem by staying in the air and punching everything.

Noh was bashing and shooting his way through demons when he spotted an opening, though there wasn't quite enough time to explain his plan to Logan as he would have liked. Instead, he simply grabbed Logan and hurled him across the opera house so that he more or less knocked K back from Azazel.

She'd barely gotten enough time to realize what had happened and start to smile at Logan before Azazel blasted him away from her with a roar. He'd only just blasted Logan, though, when a familiar purple arrow sang through the air to sink into his arm. It didn't do much to hurt Azazel, but it did draw his attention long enough for Clint to sing out his greeting. "Hiya, K. Heard my other wife's honor needed defending." He tipped his bow Azazel's way. "This guy bothering you?"

She grinned his way. "Little bit. Seem to be down a few items of clothes because of him," she admitted, looking down at herself — and smirking slightly at Logan, who couldn't help but look her over for a second. "I just bumped into a real cutie, though. He disappeared before I could make a move."

"When this is over, we'll make sure you guys go on a first date," Clint teased her before he was distracted again by a demon who grabbed him out of the air for a second before Natasha sighed and shouted something in Russian that sounded like Clint had heard it a thousand times.

"Lifeguard, do you mind if I throw you too?" Noh asked with a little smirk, and Tyler nodded.

Azazel had regained his senses enough that he was trying to get close to grab K and disappear. It was almost like watching a cat play with a mouse as he'd appear, and she'd take a swing to keep him from getting a hand on her, then he would teleport to the opposite side to try and get her to back into him, chuckling all the while.

But Noh had excellent aim, and this time, he wasn't trying to hit K when he tossed Tyler right at Azazel. The moment Tyler got his hands on Azazel, he broke into a wide grin, even though Azazel bodily tossed him over the stage with a snarl.

But when Azazel tried to teleport again ... he simply couldn't, and though he tried several times, he was simply left half snarling in frustration.

As soon as it was clear that he wasn't able to go anywhere, K stared at him wide-eyed for a moment before she rushed forward and hit him solidly in the throat with a growl. She began to lay into him bare-fisted, pounding him for everything she was worth — and it was clear that her adamantium-laced fists were more than what Azazel had expected. Every hit rang out with an echoing crack.

When he finally managed to get a hand on her to freeze her in place to get her to _stop_ , he was definitely hurting, bloodied badly and wincing as he made out his threats.

Both of the Nightcrawlers glanced at each other, sensing the opening K had given them, and they didn't need to share a word as they both teleported over, on either side of Azazel, swords drawn as they dove in to simply try to tear him apart.

The three fighters danced across the stage, and even injured, Azazel was putting up a decent defense, though it was clear to anyone watching that he was playing _entirely_ defensively. He could hardly turn without one of the two Nightcrawlers there to meet him, blades drawn and snarling in his face.

"Weren't you the one calling me a coward — and yet you cannot face me without a small army of your own and help from your own past," Azazel spat out as he barely managed a parry.

"Seeing as you've been hiding behind my best friend since your rise to power, I'm not much inclined to care what you consider valiant," Nightcrawler spit back. "You and your army of demons. When it was just you and I fighting, you were trapped on an island, if I remember correctly. And that's where you stayed."

"Then, I was weakened by my forced exile from Hell," Azazel replied coolly. "You could never handle me in my full power."

"And still, the only time you can take on a fight is when you have an army behind you," Kurt growled out. "Still — you are the coward here."

Azazel sneered at him for a moment before he settled into a smirk and shook his head. "We can have this argument all day, my boy — and we always do," he said silkily. "Tell me something, though — speaking of cowardice — where is that dear girl of yours?"

The elder Nightcrawler laughed. "Old man, that is none of your concern. Not when you clearly got what you bargained for." With that, Azazel snarled his way and then twirled in an instant to slash the younger Kurt from shoulder to hip, staggering him back a few steps as the blood began to flow.

"Hmm," Azazel said with a sneer. "And this is supposed to be the more spry of the two of you."

His moment of gloating cost him, though, as Logan darted past, avoiding the blades that Nightcrawler was wielding simply to slash Azazel across the back of his thighs as he passed, crumpling the demon king and rendering him further immobile.

With an echoing roar, Azazel simply blasted back all three men, sending both the younger Kurt and Logan flying into a wall, where fresh forces of demons were waiting, though the older Nightcrawler teleported at the last second and reappeared in front of Azazel, teeth bared and swords flashing. It happened so fast that Azazel was only able to block one, the other sinking deeply into his chest.

"For all your efforts to take them from me, you never could handle us," Kurt all but growled out before, with one sweeping motion, he removed his father's head.

And for a moment, he stared at his father's body before he simply sank to both knees.

As soon as Azazel had died, all of his spells broke at once, and the person nearest to Nightcrawler, was, of course, K. She took in the scene and very quickly made her way over to him, pushing him away from his battered father's body, making sure that he was no longer facing Azazel, before she took his head in both of her hands to make him look at her. "It's over," she said before she wrapped him up in a hug. "I'm sorry it took so long."

He leaned into her hug for a long moment, pulling her to him as he whispered, "If I could have gotten there sooner…."

"Hey. Don't worry about that. It's done and over with. I'm okay," she promised, holding him as tightly as she could. "He can't hurt anyone now."

He took in a breath that was likely supposed to be steadying, but it hitched in his throat before he simply melted into her, the relief falling from every movement of his shoulders as he all but sobbed his shock and grief into her shoulder.

It didn't get any better when Logan joined them and laid a hand on Nightcrawler's shoulder to mutter something low that _felt_ encouraging from just the tone. He looked up at the younger Kurt — who was barely biting back gasps of pain as Tyler finished fixing him back up — and then around them to where the rest of the group was pushing back the other demons who weren't smart enough to see that their master had fallen.

"Just … keep everyone back for a little bit, would ya?" Logan said softly as he put his arms around both Nightcrawler and his wife.

Tyler nodded softly, his eyes wide on seeing the scene before him. "As long as you need," he swore, resting a hand on Kurt's shoulder as the younger Kurt started to drift off, before he took up a defensive position to give the group of traumatized friends time to themselves.


	11. Now What?

**Chapter 11: "Now What?"**

While everyone else had gone to the opera house, Kate found herself with all the teenagers, the youngest of which was Zoe Barton, who was barely thirteen, skinny, and had a splash of freckles across her nose — and she only seemed to acquire more freckles as she tried to shapeshift back into her usual self.

The girl was thrilled to pieces to have Kate around, but for Kate, for the first time, she really had no idea what to do. In her own time, Zoe was just a heartbeat on a monitor — Clint and Natasha hadn't even found out the gender yet. And some part of Kate was just… half-guilty about knowing this big of a secret before her parents did.

But thankfully, Zoe seemed to be well enough distracted trying to get a better handle on her powers as Krissy gently tried to help her with whispered encouragements in the corner. Krissy had been forced to learn quickly — and the hard way — how to get control _fast_ , and she seemed to have taken her fellow Hawk-family member under her wing.

Gerry, on the other hand, really hadn't changed much at all. Just looking at him, Kate could see the grinning little blonde boy she was so used to — though maybe with a few more freckles and with long, gangly legs. He was old enough now that he would have been close to graduation in another life, looking forward to college and probably joining either the Avengers or the X-Men, whichever team he decided to choose.

He and Charlie hadn't moved since he arrived, either. Almost from the second he sat down next to her, she'd just latched onto him — and Kate could tell it was doing her some real good. She was smiling and laughing with the rest of the kids as Gerry did his best to distract from all the things Daken had laid out for them by putting on a spectacular light show.

Gerry's powers weren't quite like Jubilee's — all colors and fireworks and explosions. Instead, he worked with the light itself, in little flashes and twinkles like starlight as he dimmed the lights without so much as a move toward the light switch so that everyone could see the show better.

At some point during the show — Kate wasn't sure when — both Zoe and Krissy had found their way over to where she was and curled up on either side of her, and again, she was struck by just how badly she wanted to take these battle-worn teenagers home with her. She knew she couldn't, though, so she just cuddled them as best she could in the meantime.

They had all fallen into easy conversation, trading stories — since Zoe and Gerry hadn't seen the others in a while and wanted to know everything that had happened since the younger versions of their Aunt Katie and Uncle Kurt had arrived — when both Elin and Sying seemed to pick their heads up, obviously hearing something that the others couldn't. Elin gave Sying a glare, silently warning him to stay put and keep watch, before she got up and left the little group to investigate.

But, even so — it was Charlie who let out a little whisper of a sigh as she said, "Oh, they're back."

Chance glanced at his sister, one eyebrow quirked up. "Uh ... who's here?" he asked carefully, and Kate noticed that he had pulled back one hand so he could grab one of his guns if he needed to.

Charlie was leaning heavily against Gerry now. "I can't tell… everyone's emotions are so strong," she whispered out. "But ... relief. It's all over them." She opened one eye to look at her brother. "They're all so _tired_."

The other kids glanced at each other. "Relief?" Krissy repeated, her tail swishing around behind her. She still looked a bit… cautious.

But Charlie had closed her eyes again, concentrating on the emotions she could feel beyond them. A slow smile started at the corner of her mouth that turned into a giggle. " _Oh_ ," she whispered. "Wow. That's ... I haven't felt joy that strong in a _long_ time."

That had the other kids clambering to their feet as curiosity won out over everything else, and they all but tumbled out of the door and into the hall to see just what was going on, half scared to hope that "relief" and "joy" meant what they thought it meant.

The adults that were filing into the church all looked tired and simply worn out, but every single one of them was grinning, taking any kids that were close enough to them in warm hugs. Clint lifted Zoe up in a spin, and Krissy all but tackled her dad when she saw that he was still there — still alive and okay after the fight, even if he looked like he was still half in shock.

But it was quickly apparent, even as the very quiet and relieved celebrations started up, what the joy was that Charlie had felt as the kids and Kate spotted, beyond everyone else and practically at the entrance to the church, the little family of ferals. They looked to have simply melted into the floor right at the spot where Elin met them, and they were huddled in such a warm hug that they probably could have stayed there for a year and been totally fine.

Kate, meanwhile, made her way through the groups of very relieved adults and kids — past where Tyler had Chance in a grinning bear hug — to find _her_ Kurt to simply wrap him up in a hug of her own and pull him to her for a long kiss. "Glad to see you didn't get yourself stabbed again," she whispered to him — not just because she was standing on her toes to whisper in his ear but because it almost seemed too loud to say anything in a louder tone than a whisper in the quiet church where everyone around them was just melting into tired relief. She played with the torn edges of his uniform, which seemed even more tattered than before. "Or maybe not. What happened?"

"The demons are on the run," Kurt said softly. "And Azazel is dead."

"Good." She very gently kissed his cheek and then held onto him for a moment, looking over his shoulder in the hug at the others in various stages of dealing with everything that had happened. "So… now what do we do?" she whispered even quieter than before.

"I don't know," Kurt admitted. "Usually, when we've done what we need to do, Gateway appears and picks us up again."

She nooded, still half watching everyone else. "Well, I don't see him," she said at last.

Kurt let out a bit of a chuckle. "It's not usually an instantaneous thing. We should stay together and wait."

"And make sure this bunch takes care of themselves," she agreed with a sigh. "At the risk of sounding like Annie again, they need food. And sleep."

"I believe that's exactly what we're supposed to do," Kurt agreed.

Kate sat back down on the balls of her feet for a moment, looking up at her Kurt. "I'm starting with you, then," she decided as she took both of his hands in hers and started to pull him back toward the rooms. "Because you look… tired. I guess killing your dad takes it out of you… you okay?"

"Better than my older self," Kurt said with a sigh. "He was the one to finish the job."

She frowned at that and looked past him to where the older Nightcrawler was simply curled around Krissy, the two of them apparently following the ferals' lead. "That sucks ... but also, good for him," she muttered out, still holding both of Kurt's hands in her own. "I'll make sure he eats and sleeps and … you know. Does something besides melting into Krissy."

"It might be best to let him process for the moment," Kurt said.

"Right, I just mean… eventually, they're going to have to get up from the floor."

"Yes, but they'll need to heal, and at the risk of driving you into my older self's arms ... you shouldn't cook for them."

She let out half of a disbelieving chuckle. "Are you jealous of yourself?" she couldn't help but tease.

"I could never be jealous of another," he replied with a grin.

Her eyes twinkled the slightest as she kissed his cheek. "That's too bad. You're cute when you're all flustered," she teased him.

"So fluster me," he replied low.

She laughed delightedly and draped her arms over his shoulders. "Find us some privacy, and I'll do more than that." Kurt grinned impishly, and the two of them teleported away — as anyone in the church who was paying even half an ounce of attention to them shook their heads at how much _that_ hadn't changed.

* * *

Just about everyone in the little church had slept in — deeply — after everything that had happened. There was still work to be done, eventually, of course — chasing out the last of the demons and starting to rebuild. But for the moment, the church was quiet, and there was even a little cleansing rainfall for the first time in years.

The sound of the rain pattering against the roof and the walls just contributed to the lazy feeling that morning, though Kate was surprised to see that, besides Chance — who was up looking out for Charlie still — she was the first one up and about and looking for something to eat.

She stepped out of the church for a quick moment to chat with the bamfs, who of course immediately descended on her with chattering and hugs and snuggles and were more than happy to help her find anything she wanted — with no less than three of them producing scrounged coffee before she even asked.

She spent the better part of her morning playing with the bamfs before she finally made her way back inside, where some of the others were starting to stir as well. Natasha had pulled Noh and Daken into a quiet corner to discuss the best way to move forward and start getting things back to normal. They still had work to do — killing Azazel didn't mean his armies were gone or that the creatures of Hell were going to give up their hold on heaven and earth, but it would make their job easier — and from the sound of things, the three of them were already discussing ways to make some headway without involving the ferals or the older Nightcrawler until they were well and truly recovered from everything that had happened. Kate had to smile when her Kurt slipped almost seamlessly into the group with a few ideas of his own as to the best ways to start their campaign to save heaven in particular — speaking from experience — and she very quietly slipped out of the room with coffee and breakfast to go find Krissy and her father.

She wasn't surprised at all to find the two of them still curled up together, and she had decided to leave the coffee and food for them to get to when they woke up, but the smell of the coffee had Krissy stirring the slightest — and as Kate paused in the doorway, she also realized that the Nightcrawler was awake and looked like he had been for some time.

"You guys okay?" Kate asked quietly, not sure exactly what to do. Kurt had said everyone needed to heal, but ... all she could think of was pancakes and coffee, really. That and hanging out with friends and family had always been more than enough for her and her friends — though they'd never faced anything like _this_.

"We will be," Nightcrawler said quietly.

Kate nodded probably a few more times than was necessary before she pressed a steaming mug toward each of the sleepy Elves.

Nightcrawler smiled warmly at her with the nearly automatic, " _Danke_ ," in response.

" _Bitte_ ," she replied almost as automatically, then broke into a little smile. "It's half-caff, but the bamfs did their best," she added. "Maybe when things are cleaned up a little better, there will be good coffee again."

Krissy had to smirk the slightest bit at that as she took a long sip of the coffee. "Right. Because _coffee_ is the best measurement of how well the world is doing."

Kate peered at Krissy with one eye opened wider than the other. "Are you sure you're feeling okay?" she teased. "Because no daughter of _mine_ would say such a thing about coffee."

Krissy rolled her eyes but couldn't help grinning. "I guess it's just that you caught me before my first cup," she teased.

" _That's_ better," Kate said with a decisive nod.

"We'll be down to scrounge before too long," Nightcrawler said. "We're just … taking our time to wake up for a change."

Kate smiled at that and nodded. "Don't let me rush you," she said. "I just thought you might like some coffee. Little taste of normalcy." She leaned back in her chair and saluted them both with her mug before she took a long drink and then grinned. "Next on my list is finding Pete's special creamer so this at least tastes drinkable."

"I remember that stuff," Krissy said with a small smile. "Spidey got _so mad_ when me and Elin would steal it."

"It was his own fault for letting you taste it," Nightcrawler said quietly.

"And for leaving it out in the _open_ where we could get to it," Krissy agreed, shaking her head and smiling wider still.

"Yes, he should know better," Kate laughed. "We've been saying since you were born that you two are troublemakers."

"Well, in all honesty, if it wasn't him, it was K giving it to them with their 'coffee'," Nightcrawler said with a sigh, unwilling to lay blame entirely on Spidey when he was unable to defend himself.

"That doesn't surprise me either," Kate said, shaking her head. "She's a rabble rouser." She finished off what was left in her mug and then tipped her head at the two of them. "There's more down the hall if you want — and probably real food too, which… you need," she added to Nightcrawler with a raised eyebrow. "I don't care if Tyler patched you up — you still need to eat to recover from all that healing."

"I am vaguely familiar with that concept," he replied with a little troublemaking smirk.

"Good — then I expect zero arguments from you," she replied with a wide, impish grin before she held out a hand to both of them to try to pull them to their feet, though Krissy just used that as a way to pull herself into a very long hug, tightly tucking herself around Kate with a little contented sigh.

* * *

When Kate did finally get back down to the kitchens, she was surprised to hear the clatter of pots and pans and to catch some amazing scents drifting out of the open door. She tipped her head to the side and stepped in... only to stop and grin when she saw Annie talking with Sying as she worked, as she often did — cooking for the crowd.

"Please tell me you at least _asked_ before you kidnapped Annie to be our personal chef," Krissy teased Sying, who rolled his eyes at her.

"Sweetheart, he didn't need to ask," Annie replied. "He just had to tell me that there was a handful of healers here that needed somethin' to eat that was a little more fit for human consumption than what you _had._ "

"Is my cooking really that bad?" Kate laughed.

"Bobby's made wild improvements," Sying deadpanned. "But your ability to order out is second to none."

Kate looked like she was ready to get huffy and defensive for a second before she rolled her eyes. "Hurtful," she said his way, shaking her head. "I thought for sure by now I'd be good at cooking ... I mean... Fourteen years, at least ten with Annie… tell me I at least improved a little!"

"You had other things occupyin' your attention," Annie said with a smirk. "But you did figure out how to make Southern biscuits from scratch."

"Well, breakfast food," Kate said with a smirk to match hers that had Annie laughing as she pulled a pan away from the fire and set it aside to rush over to give Kate a warm hug.

"I know it's a little selfish, but it sure is nice to see you again," Annie told her. "We all missed you."

"So I've been told," Kate said as she hugged her friend right back. "I don't mind — you know I love hugs anyway."

Elin came in a short while later, looking a bit brighter than she had been as she took a seat and watched the group with her chin in her hand next to Krissy. "How long has this been going on?" she asked her best friend.

"The hugging or the Miss Annie baking frenzy?" Krissy laughed.

"Yes," Elin replied as she leaned on Krissy's shoulder.

"Well, Sying brought Annie in this morning, apparently, and the hugging has been going on since Mom got here," Krissy reported with a little smile.

"I missed that," Elin told her as she looked up at her friend. "The smiling."

"It's a pretty good look on you too," Krissy replied without missing a beat, smiling wider still. "I hope you're not going to break anything smiling like that."

"I may have," she shot back. "Been so long it actually hurts."

Krissy giggled and shook her head at her friend. "Good thing you heal, then," she teased. "The rest of us will just have to power through all the smiling on our own. You know how it is when you use muscles you haven't used before."

"No, not really," Elin said in a dry tone before she smirked at Krissy and bumped her shoulder with hers.

"Come on — it hasn't been _that_ long since you got your healing," Krissy replied, sticking her tongue out at her friend.

"No, it just _feels_ like an eternity," Elin said in a huff.

"Yeah, it really kind of does," Krissy agreed quietly, resting her head on top of her friend's as Annie shoved two very full plates of food at both of them.

"You are _growing girls_. Eat," Annie directed them both.

"Yes, ma'am," they both answered in unison as they straightened up and did as they were told.

Kate grinned and leaned over to the older Nightcrawler. "Oh, she taught them well," she whispered.

"It was much easier for her to get them to toe the line once … well," Nightcrawler said, drifting off a bit. "It will be interesting to see what happens next."

"In so many ways, not just with the 'yes ma'am'ing," Kate agreed, leaning against the counter as she watched the two teenage girls fall back into companionable, chatting while they ate — as Sying got a loaded plate of his own and quietly sat on Krissy's other side.

Annie had directed Kate and Nightcrawler to sit down with their own plates chock full of food when the twins appeared — both of them. Chance was beaming like he'd won an Olympic gold and had one arm underneath Charlie, who was determined to come and eat with everyone else. Annie turned to see who else had come to join the mealtime party and very nearly dropped everything she was holding on the floor before she rushed over to wrap both of the twins up in a warm hug.

"Hi, Mom," Chance said with a grin. "Missed you too."

Annie took a step back, her eyes obviously glistening as she looked them over, cupping both of their faces in her hands as she shook her head. "You've both grown so much since I last saw you," she said softly before she let out a smile and a bit of a laugh. "Stop growing so fast. I'll have to put bricks on your heads to keep you from outstrippin' us all!"

"Just trying to catch up to Dad," Charlie replied with a grin of her own.

Annie laughed and hugged them both again. "At this rate, you'll be taller than him, and then what will he do with himself?" she teased.

"Weep," Chance replied without missing a beat.

"Probably," Annie chuckled before she grabbed both of them by the arms and ushered them toward the group. "You're both so skinny, though — let's get some food in you so you _can_ catch up to your father," she said in an obvious attempt to hide the heavy emotion in her voice.

The twins grinned and joined the group of teenagers, this time settling on the other side of Elin, who looked up and smiled Chance's way. Charlie seemed content to drink in the happiness of the room, and Chance was still grinning like he'd personally been the one to end Azazel's reign of terror.

"How're your parents?" Chance asked in an undertone to Elin.

"Last I saw, they were wrapped around each other pretty tightly and dead asleep," she replied. "Weird as it sounds, I think they missed each other."

"Well, I can understand that, sorta," he said, tipping his head toward his sister. "I mean. I missed Charlie."

"Yeah, I just didn't think they were kept apart. It makes sense, though," Elin said as she picked at her breakfast.

"But they're together now," Chance said, starting to smirk. "And Sying would probably say that's the present state, so forget the past."

"I think … they're okay," she said. "And I'm ... kind of in a daze, I guess."

"You need anything?" Chance asked sincerely. "I mean ... I've gotten pretty good at taking care of stuff. If you need anything, I mean."

She gave him a little smile and squeezed his arm. "I'm good, thanks."

He sighed and nodded at that. "Oh, okay. Well, let me know," he said with a shy sort of smile.

"You'd be the first person I talked to," Elin promised.

"Really?" Chance asked, and immediately winced when Charlie reached over to smack him in the back of the head. "Ow. Charlie — what the heck?"

Elin glanced between the twins and raised an eyebrow as she shook her head and turned to talk to Krissy again.

But it wasn't long before the quiet conversation was broken again — this time by a much more disruptive influence. Clint came half tripping into the room with a pair of little red half-demons cackling at his ankles, holding onto his legs as he tried to get around while they were half-giggling "fall down again!"

Clint looked up to Kate when he entered and tried his very best to look like he wasn't being totally overrun by the little demon kids. "This… is probably my fault for trying to play floor monster," he tried to explain.

"With actual monsters," Nightcrawler said.

Kate shook her head at Nightcrawler for that one and tried to help Clint. "They can't help who their father is," she said decisively as she slipped over to crouch down and try to cajole them into letting go of his legs, though they cackled at her for her efforts.

"No, mother," one of them said clearly.

"We _like_ him," the other said.

"It's fine, Katie-Kate, I just gotta get to where I can sit down," Clint said, his arms out for balance as they pulled at him.

"No, play monster!" one of the twins insisted as his brother climbed up Clint's side to try to pull him from a higher vantage point — which was fine up until he got hold of Clint's gray-white hair and started to try to pull him down that way.

"Ow, okay. That's not allowed," Clint said, tickling the little guy to try to get him to release his hair, but while he burst into delighted giggles, he gripped harder — and that had his brother trying to climb up to so he could also get Clint's attention.

But both of them froze when a low snarl split the air and the two adult ferals stepped into the room. "Gabriel, Michael — _down_. Now," K growled out.

Kate raised an eyebrow at that and looked even more shocked when the twins climbed down from Clint, regarding K almost warily. "Gabriel and Michael?" Kate asked.

"Azazel didn't want to name them — but you did, so … we came up with the names that would tweak him the worst," K explained. "Turns out - the kids learned them quickly."

Kate found herself grinning at that. "I like them too," she laughed quietly.

"Well once I suggested angel names … you dropped the archery ones you were looking at," K told her.

"Sounds about right," Kate agreed as the little guys seemed to decide she was the safest bet and skipped over to where she was, while Annie regarded the tiny twins carefully before simply selecting a few biscuits and such to slide their way.

They were about to just dig in when K growled low their direction again and both of them froze before muttering out a reluctant 'thank you'. K smirked the slightest and settled in next to Logan, leaning against him as she watched the two little red boys carefully.

Kate tipped her head at K, surprised at how well the twins were behaving for her, before she said, smirking slightly, "I can't pay you for the daycare, but the bamfs did scrounge some coffee if you'll take that in trade."

"Yes," K said, her eyes brightening up a bit. "The demon king was all about tea, wouldn't you know."

"Well… it's half-caff, but that's all they could find."

"And this is still hell on earth," K deadpanned. "But still better than tea."

Krissy snorted outright at that and didn't even try to cover up for it. "Pass the biscuits, please," she said, and Sying gladly reached over to grab a few for her.

"So, what happens to these two when it's all said and done?" Kate asked as the red imps on either side of her giggled at each other as they threw bits of biscuit until a _look_ from Logan got them to stop.

"Well," Nightcrawler said slowly. "They are children; we'll simply have to teach them properly."

"Shouldn't be too hard. You had practice with the bamfs," she teased.

"Not with those two helping me keep them in line," Nightcrawler agreed with a smile. "I take it they find you more frightening than Azazel was?" He was looking at Logan when he asked it.

"He didn't have near the control he wanted," Logan said with a shrug. "Couldn't stop the instincts from kicking in and occasionally kicking his ass. Can't predict what you don't plan."

One of the boys nodded and giggled. "Stab him!" he cackled.

K smirked his way. "He wasn't exactly nice to them either, so ... "

Kate and Kurt both frowned at that, though the other little boy looked up at Nightcrawler with a curious expression. "Big brother killed father," he reported in an almost disinterested tone.

"Yes," Nightcrawler replied frankly. "So you'll have to follow my rules now." Logan and K started to nod in agreement, sure to give the boys a united front.

The boys shared a look on hearing that, their noses scrunched up for a moment as they looked to Logan and K and then Kate, who was also nodding. "Big brother in charge," one of them said at last, as the other nodded decisively.

"That means you have to behave yourselves like K and Logan taught you," Nightcrawler told them in a stern tone. "All the time, without being asked."

But they shook their heads at that. "NO."

"Yes," Logan growled out.

They both turned toward Logan and frowned hard, arms crossed over their chests. "Why-y-y?"

"Because that's what you need to do if you want to stay with us," NIghtcrawler told them.

They both huffed out little breaths and didn't look happy about it, and for a moment, both of them honestly looked like Kate as they growled out in unison, " _Fine_."

"And," K said in a soothing tone. "If you behave, Annie will give you treats like you've never had before."

The boys seemed to consider this for a moment, watching Annie with narrowed eyes. "Okay," one of them said slowly.

"We _try_ it," the other agreed.


	12. Have a Little Faith

**Chapter 12: "Have a Little Faith"**

When he was not with Krissy, simply drinking in the time with his daughter as he caught up on everything he had missed during his imprisonment and marveling at the young woman she was becoming, the elder Nightcrawler found himself, despite his best efforts, simply drifting toward Kate. He knew, of course, that she wasn't the same Kate that he'd lost, but he still couldn't help but fall into her presence, happy even just to watch her chatting with the kids or to help her wash the dishes after one of Annie's meals.

It was late in the evening when he saw her heading out with some of Annie's sweets, and almost without thinking about it, he nearly warned her against leaving the safety of the church — until he realized that she was taking the sweets out to the bamfs.

The group of little imps teleported all around her as she delightedly hugged them and tickled them and spoiled them as she always used to do, sharing the treats as they all chattered for her attention and she listened attentively to their stories of all the mischief that they got up to.

Of course, when the bamfs noticed him, they immediately teleported to where he was with hugs and chattering stories of their own — they had very obviously missed him. One of them offered Nightcrawler what was left of a cookie to share with him as well, and Kate laughed as he was mobbed by the affectionate little imps.

"They're a little worried you're still mad at them," Kate explained.

"Yes, I had gathered as much," he replied as he rested his hand on top of one of their heads.

Kate grinned as she watched them attacking their big brother. "They were just telling me how much they're looking forward to you and Krissy living somewhere they can actually live with you again," she said as she affectionately tickled one of the bamfs for herself. "They want to help rebuild."

"For a bunch of little demons, they certainly have plenty of experience rebuilding," he said with a nod.

She made a face and laughed. "Oh, please don't tell me that means more mansion-rebuilding. We just did that with the Kree."

"Sections," he clarified. "Not the entire thing. Not until … well. Hopefully, you can avoid that entirely."

"That's the plan," Kate agreed, leaning back against the side of the church. "Find Mystique ... keep her away from Krissy ... keep Azazel away from her while she's learning to control her powers ... somehow. We'll figure it out."

"I'm sure you just need to tell Logan he needs to kill her, and he'd be more than happy to assist," Nightcrawler told her.

"Oh, I'm sure," Kate agreed.

"Though ... it should be interesting around here," he said tipping his head to the side. "K has a particular hatred for shapeshifters. But she adores little Zoe."

"Well, she liked Teddy well enough, even though he's half-Skrull." Kate leaned her head back.

"He's a special case," he said with a grin.

"True. _Everybody_ loves Teddy," Kate said. She turned her head to grin over at him with barely suppressed laughter in her gaze. "But Zoe's a Hawkeye. So she'll be fine too. After all, K's got Clint as a second husband."

"Yes, well. That … will remain a bit of an enigma — regardless of how they get along," he said with a smirk. "I've long suspected Clint of a lucky streak where it really counts."

"Oh, definitely," she agreed without hesitation. "That's how he's even still _alive_ , let's be honest here, Kurt."

"No doubt about it," he agreed. "The fact that he can take the teasing and give it right back to her is just the cherry on top."

"Good to know some things never change," she said, still absently playing with some of the bamfs.

"You have no idea. Mid-fight, and the two of them are joking around," he said shaking his head. "Demons surrounding us — and they're making dating jokes."

"I'm sad I missed it," she chuckled.

"Don't be," he said with a fond look in his eyes. "It was still a close battle, and had it not been for Tyler turning off Azazel's ability to teleport, we'd be looking for her again today."

"I didn't know he could do that," Kate said, raising an eyebrow.

"Secondary mutation," Kurt said with a smirk. "And a deadly useful one."

"No kidding," she agreed. She watched him for a moment as she seemed to think something over. "But ... not quite as useful as having you around to finish him off. Or so I heard."

"Yes, though I'm sure given a few moments, either Logan or K or my younger self would have done so." He smirked, his gaze on his hands. "Or Clint would have gotten another arrow in him. There were so many options to choose from."

"Yes, well, Clint did tell me about the ones he dipped in holy water," she said with a light smile.

"Ah, that would explain why the demons didn't heal up very quickly," he said with a nod. "Though from the way K was using Azazel for a punching bag, I had to wonder if Tyler got more than the teleporting taken offline."

"Well, she told me the deal was she promised not to use the claws — but she didn't promise more than that," Kate said, still watching him for a moment. "Sounds like it was a group effort."

"It really was," he said before he let out a sigh and just leaned back, his arms propping him up in the grass. "Everyone got a shot in, more or less."

"And now he's gone." Kate was still watching him, leaned against the outside wall.

"And for the first time in as long as I can remember, I believe that we may be able to relax," he said sincerely. "There will be some demon turf wars, but with Daken's little traps and bombs, those will settle out soon enough, and we'll drive them back to where they belong — or simply kill them off."

"Sounds more like fun than work," Kate said with a little smirk. "Like killing ninjas."

"Tedious fun," he replied. "Like killing ninjas. Very dumb, clumsy, smelly ninjas."

"Should be some good target practice for Krissy," she said. "You know how sloppy your aim can get when you're out of practice, and she's been relying on her swords for so long…" She trailed off and grinned.

"You never were any good at subtlety," he said with a little smirk after a long, pleasant silence. "So what is it that's on your mind?"

She peered at him for a moment and then let out all her breath. "Never could hide anything from you, huh?" she chuckled. "I just…" She shrugged. "I want to make sure you're okay. Or that you're going to be."

He smiled her way the slightest and drew in a deep breath before he closed his eyes and laid back on the grass the rest of the way. "I won't lie and say that all is well, but ... I will be fine once this … shock or whatever it is passes."

She didn't look all that convinced and watched him for a second before she blurted out, "You're not going to be okay if you do your stupid guilt thing, and somebody should tell you it's _not your fault_."

"I have Logan and K for that," he replied without missing a beat. "They don't seem to miss too many opportunities to remind me that my head is up into places it shouldn't be." He picked his head up to look at her easier. "Besides. This … was not your typical, everyday patricide. This was removing an evil from the earth. If we weren't still fighting demons, I'd request a party."

She let out all her breath and looked relieved. "Maybe you should," she said. "Have a party, I mean. When things settle more. It would be good for you."

"This … may be true. It would be more fun if I got Tyler to turn off Logan's healing; then, we could get him drunk," he said with a smirk.

She laughed delightedly at that. "And get him singing."

"Ah, well. All things considered, that would be nothing short of a miracle."

"Well, give it time," she suggested. "Let him take out some frustration on some demons. And hug Elin. And K. A lot. _Then_ get him drunk."

He smirked her way and nodded his head in agreement, content just to watch her.

"This is terribly cozy," K said as she stepped out with one hand up to shade her eyes from the bright sunlight. "Why are you hiding from me, Blueberry Stud Muffin? Is it because I'm all dressed now? Is that what the trouble is?"

"You've been neglecting her," Kate chuckled as she climbed to her feet, shaking off a few bamfs as she did so.

"I wanted a hug with more clothes this morning, and this one disappears," K complained, watching Kurt smirk in the grass.

"I'm terribly sorry," he said, still wearing the smirk as he slowly pushed himself up. "Where are my manners?"

She took a few steps closer and offered him a hand to get upright before he pulled her into a long bear hug and had to chuckle as she returned it in kind, only to let out a contented sigh and start picking on him. "Oh, sweet blueberry, you look like shit in daylight," K said.

He looked affronted for a moment before he burst out a laugh. "No, you must need your eyes checked. I'm dashing as ever."

"No, darling, you're all … grayed out and sad-looking," she said, tickling his side. "Skinny. Can't call you a stud muffin right now."

"Well, most of this gray was your fault," he teased gently.

"If it was my fault, you'd be bone white," she countered with a grin. "Come on; I'm told that you require more food to get you healed up the rest of the way, and Annie is making it her mission to bring you back to your former glory."

"She's always on a mission like that," Kurt chuckled but allowed K to lead him back inside — though Kate had already ducked in ahead of them in search of something else to do to make herself useful. "She should be trying to feed the two of you as well."

"She knows that's a losing battle," K said. "Until we get out of the city, anyhow, and somewhere that we can bring down a deer or something. You're a much higher priority right now."

"I'm not sure if I should be concerned or flattered at that."

"You were the one being beaten and tied to a wall, as I understand it," she said.

"Yes, well. We each had our own trials these last few years," he said, raising an eyebrow her way. "I still can't believe you… what you were willing to do for us... you didn't have to."

"You know he was trying to find a way to do that anyhow," she said, losing much of her teasing tone. "And he was very close."

"I know," he sighed heavily. "And I'm sorry."

"Okay, you know what? Don't do that," she said more seriously. "I saw an opening, and I went for it. It was tactical. I _knew_ what he wanted — and I knew that he didn't even think of the consequences when it meant not having to work some insane spell to get in my pants. And it all worked out. What's the worst that could have happened?"

He gave her a _look_. "You know _why_ he wanted you — half-demons with claws and teleporting powers…" He shook his head.

She stopped and pulled him into a nearby room with a little smirk. "I have a theory," she said. "One that I don't think he even considered. At least ... he hadn't tried to find any magic way to deal with it."

"Then tell me — and let's hope you're right."

"The blood," she said quietly. "My blood would hurt him, right? I don't think it's possible for anything to ever work just because of that."

He tipped his head to one side as he seemed to think it over before he slowly nodded. "Maybe," he agreed at last before he let out a sigh. "I certainly hope you're right."

"Have a little faith, blueberry."

He let out a breath of a laugh at that and shook his head at her. "You're using my lines against me," he teased.

"I am," she said, taking his arm as he led the way toward the kitchen. "But the fact that it gave you guys a window to take him out without having to fight Logan or me? Totally worth it."

"I'm just sorry it came to that," she told her sincerely. "He has always been my problem—"

"Hey. It was far better that it was me than Kate," she said.

He didn't have a retort for that and instead fell silent and quietly nodded. "Yes. Thank you for saving her," he said in a whisper.

"And … aside from _royally_ pissing off my husband, it was the smartest route," she said, giving him a little squeeze. "But I think... he'll be okay with a little time. Especially once I can _prove_ that I was right."

"That's the hope for all of us," he agreed quietly.

"Yeah, about that," she said, biting her lip as she chose her words. "Are you sure getting close to this Kate is a good idea?"

He stiffened the slightest bit at that and frowned. "I'm not going to do anything improper."

"Oh, I know that; you're a gentleman, always have been," she agreed easily. "But it's got to be confusing to her. She has to be torn between the two of you — for different reasons."

He let out a breath. "She… is only trying to help."

"Yes, but you, my darling, are utterly irresistible, or didn't you read the flyer?" She gave him a little smirk. "You'll steal that girl away with your charms, and then where will your young self be? _Heartbroken_. Likely lying in a gutter somewhere waiting for death."

"You're overstating things," he said with a scoff.

"Not really," she replied with a smirk. "You have tempered a bit in your gray age — you were more dramatic then, and I really don't think he'd survive." She looked him up and down. "Look at what you've let happen to yourself. I know some if it was captivity, but the gray? You've aged every bit of twenty years over the span of two or three."

He sighed and stopped to face her for a long moment. "You're right," he said softly. "But if I have to say goodbye to her again ... I just want to make sure it's … better than before, somehow."

"What? You think she's with the wrong guy somehow?" she shook her head at him slowly. "All of this, around us? The simple fact that Azazel is out of the picture is proof that it's better than before."

"No, that's not what I…" He let out his breath. "Of course she is where she should be. I just meant… It's good to see her happy."

"Well, they haven't left yet, so they may not be done with whatever it was they're here for. Make peace with _both of them_ before they go." She popped up on her toes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek as they reached Annie. "Now, I have to go give a lot of well-earned attention to my husband. He is … highly paranoid at the moment. You two and your shared brain."

He pulled her by the hand into another quick hug before she could leave. "Go. Spoil my best friend. And tell him when he's ready for something else to do — which I'm sure will be some time from now — tell him that I'm going to track down some whiskey and find us a good group of demons to fight. Perhaps we'll go to Madripoor, even."

"Sounds like a solid plan," she replied before she simply headed off in search of Logan.


	13. Take a Chance

**Chapter 13: "Take a Chance"**

As convenient as it was to have the little bamfs back on their side to help look for supplies like coffee and other food things, the kids still had their own system in place to scrounge through the city, and they needed drinkable water. But more than that, they just wanted to get out and stretch their legs.

It was nice to have everyone back, and the hugs were great too, but they could only take so much of Logan and K being overly affectionate all over the place and of Noh and Jubilee and the younger Kate and Kurt trying to prove which was the more sugary-sweet couple. So, they slipped out that evening in search of water and probably a fight.

Krissy was having a blast teleporting from place to place, as with Azazel gone, she was able to move around more freely, and she and Sying were trying to outstrip each other racing around the various buildings.

"Come on, you two — there's no way you've spent enough time there to know what supplies are inside," Charlie called out as the two of them got too far ahead of the rest of the group, though it was obvious she was barely hiding her smirk.

"Are you _doubting_ my Kree abilities?" Sying called back in obviously dramatic shock. "I can see a bullet coming — I think I can look over a room."

"And I'm a Hawk, so …" Krissy just grinned and stuck out her tongue at Charlie before the two faster-traveling members of the team went right back into their race.

"Aww, let 'em be," Gerry teased Charlie when she looked annoyed. "Krissy hasn't gotten to play much, and you know Sying can't resist a race."

"I just don't want them to get hurt…"

"And those two are _excellent_ at getting out of danger," he pointed out with a grin. "Lighten up, Lottie."

"Are you making light puns at me? Really? Right now?" Charlie asked, crossing her arms over her chest and at least _trying_ to look like she was in charge.

"Yes. Yes, I am," Gerry replied, grinning.

Elin more or less ignored their banter as she took her time sniffing her way through one building or the next, keeping an eye open for anything useful. Though there wasn't much in the way of medical or even food, she had to laugh to herself when she found two unbroken bottles of whiskey. "Who do you think will be most happy to see this?" She asked as she turned to Chance, who was keeping up with her in their usual policy of not going anywhere without partners — just in case.

He grinned when he saw what she'd found and shook his head. "I don't know — it's a toss up between your dad and Kurt," he admitted.

"I'm gonna go ahead and call it a two-fer," she said with a little smile before she slipped them into her backpack.

Chance looked like he was about to say something else when Krissy came teleporting into the middle of the group with wide eyes and her swords drawn. "Head's up, guys — we've got company," she announced before teleporting away again.

"Back to work," Elin said with a sigh before pulling out the bow she hadn't exactly returned to Kate yet.

The group of demons announced their presence with plenty of roars and screeches, but it looked like, for the most part, they were the low-level grunts, not too intelligent — so they were easier to deal with.

"Gerry, light them up," Chance called out as soon as they spotted Sying running around the corner with the demons on his tail — clearly not running at his full capacity as he led the demons right to his friends.

"Cover your eyes," Gerry advised the others before he held out his hand, and it seemed like the sky opened up on the group of demons, blazing bright sunlight, shining a spotlight on them as they shrieked and wailed at the blinding light — and his half-sister darted in with a bo staff to start pounding on them while they were distracted, her hair growing redder and redder the harder she fought.

"Chance, Elin — cover fire," Charlie called out as Krissy appeared at her side and teleported her to the middle of a group of demons, and the two girls started to pound on them. Charlie put to use every trick she'd learned from her dad, Logan, K, and everyone else she'd grown up with, though her endurance just wasn't _there_ after so long of being in a near comatose state, and Krissy dove in to be her cover, simply cutting them to pieces. Above them, they could hear Chance's twin revolvers ringing out, as well as the telltale twang of Elin's bow.

Elin was shooting through their eyes and in one instance got one square in the center of its forehead as she ran over the top of the rubble. She was trying to keep a little distance where she could, since they weren't strictly supposed to be as far out as they were, but when Chance got tangled up with one that was trying to simply drag him up into the sky, she collapsed the bow and made a quick rush up a half toppled street light to jump across and land claws on its back, crashing the three of them to the ground.

Chance rolled away from the fight as Elin tore into the demon until it stopped moving, pushing himself up to his feet to lay down a little cover fire, since they had drawn a little attention. But when Elin was done slicing and dicing, he glanced her way, tucked away one revolver, and offered her a hand. "Thanks for the save," he said with a little grin. "I thought I was going to find out what the clouds look like firsthand."

"Not if I can help it," she said as he pulled her up to her feet — and then pulled a little harder so that she was close enough for a very quick, very shy peck on the lips.

He quickly released her hand and bit his lip before he looked beyond her at the battle. "Right ... so... Demons to fight," he said quickly.

She sort of stared at him for a second before she nodded and took the bow out again. "Yeah, can't let Charlie's first mission out be a failure," she said, quickly regaining her focus. "She'd never let us live it down."

He nodded his agreement and twirled the revolver in his hand before he pulled the second one and dove right back into work.

It didn't take long for the kids to clear most of the rest of the demons out, though — and Sying had tossed the last of the demons into a building when a couple of the bamfs showed up, chattering away and looking annoyed.

"We found supplies," Elin said to the nearest one that looked as if he was about to pass out. "Everyone is fine."

The little guy chattered at her, hands on his hips as he motioned toward the dead demons littering the streets.

"You act as if we asked them to be irritating," she said as she reached out and ruffled his hair.

The little guy raised both of his eyebrows at her like he was appraising her answer before he let out a little huff and darted over to hug her.

"I found you some more candy bars too," she told him. "You can have them when we get back."

At that, several more of the little bamfs teleported to Elin to give her little hugs and pats on the head for her good work in feeding their sugar addiction.

Krissy let out a little snort. "You guys are so easily bought."

"It's okay," Elin told her. "I think I have something to bribe our dads with too."

"Are you saying they're also easily bought?" Krissy teased, though the answer was obvious when the bamfs were giggling madly and nodding their agreement fervently.

"In this case? Yes, I think so," Elin said as she shook the backpack, and it was clear from the sound of the rattling bottles what her cargo was.

"Okay, but your dad has to swear not to get mine _too_ drunk," Krissy said with her arms crossed over her chest.

"You and I both know that's never gonna happen," Elin said. "But I did hear your dad talking about evening the odds somehow."

"That sounds like him," Gerry said with a little smirk. "What kind of trouble's he up to now? Already."

"With the two of them together? Who knows," Chance said, trying to smirk and _not_ look at Elin.

"Well, I found a few useful things back there in the building that one demon tore through," Zoe offered, pulling out her own bag. "A whole utility closet. Most of it's cleaning supplies, but there was a tool kit and a first aid kit."

"We were only out for an hour; do you need to be patched up already?" Elin teased.

Zoe put her hands on her hips and glared her way. "It's for _you_ guys. We've got Lifeguard on _our_ team."

"Then why'd you show up with a wrapped wrist?" Elin teased. "Did you make him mad?"

She flushed the slightest bit. "No ... it's just…"

"Do you have a crush on him?"

"NO." Zoe shook her head hard.

"Are you sure? Tall and blonde …"

"I do _not_ have a crush on _Lifeguard_!" Zoe said, all but stamping her foot.

"Good, because he's changed your diapers," Elin said with a grin.

"Not to mention he's married," Gerry added with a little smirk at his half-sister, who glared at him even harder until he held up his hands. "Yeah, yeah. Tone it down. You're not your mom."

"Yeah, half Barton anyhow. Maybe more," Elin laughed.

"Yeah, well, it's Dad's genes that make it hard for Ty to heal me anyway," Zoe muttered. "Shapeshifters are hard for him. Teddy's harder."

"I know," Elin said as she hooked arms with her. "I'm just trying to pick a little bit. I missed you guys."

"Missed you too, Elin," Gerry said with a little two-fingered salute. "And you know, everybody else," he said as he lazily draped an arm over Charlie's shoulders and she gave him a _look_. That only had him grinning wider at her, though. "Missed you, Lottie."

"Can we do the 'missed you' party after we get back?" Charlie asked, rolling her eyes.

"Afraid of a few demons?" Elin asked before she picked the bamf up off of her shoulder and tickled his belly. "How about a shortcut?"

"Race you there!" Krissy called out — and the bamfs scrambled to grab hold of one of each of the kids as Krissy disappeared in a poof of purple, reappearing outside the church seconds before the rest of them because of her head start as the bamfs immediately rushed over to chatter at her and argue that she had cheated.

"Hey guys, you did what you could with a cheater," Elin said as she took the backpack off her shoulder and opened it to hand out the candy.

"I am part demon," Krissy pointed out with a smirk. "It has to come out sometimes."

"They are _more_ demon — and they played fairly," Elin pointed out as she broke one of the candy bars in half for two little bamfs.

"Well, they're actively trying to make up for being stupid," Krissy said, sticking her tongue out at a couple of them.

"And you're actively trying to relax," Chance said as he started to help pass out candy to the excited little demons.

"I've been told by your sister that I should at least try to do that," Krissy countered without missing a beat.

"Oh, so you only listen to Charlie?" Chance asked with a disbelieving look on his face.

Krissy gave him a grin that was all sorts of trouble. "She _is_ older than you."

"Yes, but I'm more fun," he pointed out.

Krissy giggled, teleported over, and ruffled his hair. "Yes. Yes, you are," she agreed before teleporting away again before he could swat her away.

"Where have you all been?" The elder Nightcrawler called out from the door of the church, looking a bit stern.

The kids all glanced at each other before Krissy teleported right over to him with a little winning smile. "We brought candy for the bamfs, and bandages for Clint—"

"And whiskey for my favorite guys," Elin said as she pulled one of the bottles out. "One for you — one for dad." The bamfs behind her were giggling and nodding and making little presentation hands at the bottle, though one was trying to sneakily steal away the second bottle until Chance grabbed him by the tail to pull him up to eye level and give him a look, and the little guy giggled and patted Chance on the cheek.

"Where did you find that?" Kurt asked, losing a bit of his stern tone despite himself.

She shrugged one shoulder up to her ear. "About twelve blocks north of here," she said. "They were the only two bottles that weren't broken."

"It's her secondary mutation," Gerry joked. "Finding the only whiskey left for miles."

"Just like her father," Kurt laughed as he shook his head and motioned for the kids to come inside. "It's nearly dinnertime, and Annie has predictably gone overboard."

"You know she's not going to stop anytime soon," Chance said with a little grin.

Charlie cracked a wide smile and nodded. "I hope she doesn't anytime soon. I missed real food."

"She's not gonna stop until we're all plump and chubby and living in gingerbread houses, so… buckle in," Gerry said.

"Won't be too long for you then, huh?" Elin asked with her most serious expression.

"Nope." Gerry laughed. "I'm getting eaten first. Just call me Hansel."

"That can be taken so many ways," she laughed.

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Don't ... just… he's leaving himself open on purpose because he's trying to be funny. Don't _encourage_ him."

"Come on," Elin said. "It's fun!"

"And it makes people happy," Gerry said with a light shrug. "I don't mind."

Zoe reached over and smacked Gerry in the back of the head. "You're ridiculous."

He smacked her right back. "You are too, sis," he said, and she stuck her tongue out at him as the group of teenagers made their way back into the church.

* * *

"I keep expecting something else big to happen," Kate told the younger Kurt as the two of them were curled up in a small, quiet room together, just enjoying a moment of privacy after Kurt had spent the better part of the day with Natasha, Daken, and Noh outlining plans for what they could do to fight Hell's forces in Heaven and to finish clearing them out on Earth as well. He was pretty much talked out when he was through, so she had pulled him into somewhere private for some nonverbal communication. "I mean, we killed Azazel, so what's left to do?"

Kurt nestled into her hair as he pulled her gently closer so she could lay her head on his chest. He absently traced the line of her shoulders and back as he thought it over before, quietly, he said, "Perhaps Gateway doesn't want us to leave them to pick up the pieces alone — at least, not so soon after everything that's happened. I'm sure it must still be a shock for them. It is for us, and we're only passing visitors to this time."

"Or maybe he wants to make sure this world's Annie stuffs us until we drop before he sends us back," Kate teased, and he laughed outright and nodded.

The two of them stayed curled up for a while until Jubilee knocked on the door to tell them that they were going to be in _trouble_ if they didn't come eat all the food Annie had made, so they finally and quickly got dressed again and went down to join the others.

They weren't surprised at all to find that Annie was already stacking plates high and in particular making sure that the elder Nightcrawler was eating — though she had, in fourteen years, perfected a sort of _look_ as she pushed plates at Logan and K that was fairly hilarious to watch.

"We're sorta busy, Annie," K muttered, still well tucked into Logan's side and not so stealthily taking time to steal long not-entirely polite kisses.

"Mmhmm," she said with that same look. "So fuel up and go back to privacy."

"And miss that look you're giving us?" Logan countered. "Not a chance."

She shook her head at him and then smiled sweetly. "Missed you too, honey. Now shut up and do what I say and eat your food or I swear to God I will tease you into eternity about how the half-demon children clear their plates and you don't."

"Tease away," he shot back with a grin. "I'm not doing anything I don't want to for a long damn time."

She gave him another look before she went back to fill up plates for the kids — since, as she kept insisting, they were growing teenagers and "I'm _not_ going to let your growth be stunted by all this nonsense."

"I'm already taller than everyone else," Chance said as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"That's not very hard to do," she told him with a little laugh before she put a plate down in front of Charlie.

"And I'm already as tall as Dad," Elin told her, though she gave Annie a kiss when she set down more food.

"Also not hard to do," Annie said without missing a beat.

"I know; I was just pointing out I've already hit the bar," she replied with a little grin.

"Better catch up to me, then," Chance teased. "And really throw your dad for a loop."

"You only grow until you're perfect," K tossed back. "Don't be hateful because you're taking longer."

"I just like to take my time," Chance said with an easy shrug. "And I'm _still_ shorter than Dad."

"Not for much longer," Charlie muttered with a little smirk as her gaze rested on Chance and Elin, obviously measuring the height difference.

Chance gave his sister a _look_ and shook his head to try to ignore her and focused on polishing off what his mom set in front of them before he excused himself.

He went outside to go shooting after that — just to get some practice in and to get a little air. There wasn't much in the way of a range, and he didn't want to go too far from their makeshift base on his own, but he found a nice spot and started picking targets. He put a hole through the middle of an 'o' in the stop sign across the street. Shot out all three-colored lights in a long-dead intersection light. That sort of thing.

He'd been about ready to wrap it up when he turned to find Elin standing there with the bow. "I can wait until you're done," she said.

"No, no — I was just about done anyway," he said quickly. He gestured for her to go ahead and start shooting as he moved to the side.

She put an arrow on the string and looked around them for a moment. "Not much left to shoot," she said.

"You could try to thread my shots," he offered with a little smirk.

"I can do that," she said with a nod. "Pick one."

"Stop sign," he said, settling in to lean against the wall of the nearest building to watch the show.

She smirked and drew back, waiting only a second or so before letting it loose — and it was clear she'd hit the mark when Chance watched the fletchings peel off of the arrow as it passed through the hole.

"Neon sign above the coffee shop," he called out.

She drew back another arrow and fired it quickly with similar results, not looking to see if it hit the mark before she glanced over her shoulder at him.

"All three lights at the intersection at once."

She smirked wider and pulled out the three arrows, though she took a moment to aim before she let them fly — and though she certainly hit the light with all three, the bottom one was a hair off of center. "Crap."

He grinned. "Well, you're batting close to a hundred anyway," he teased.

She let out a little breath. "I guess it would have been a kill anyhow," she said with a shrug.

"Yeah, for sure," he agreed, still grinning. "You killed the red light dead."

"It had it coming," she replied as she counted up the arrows she had left.

"Anything else in this city offend you?" he asked with a grin.

She looked thoughtful for a moment but shook her head lightly. "Not today."

"Any _body_ offend you?" he asked, this time in a slightly different tone.

"No," she replied, frowning slightly as she looked up at him. " _Should_ I be offended?"

"No ... I… just checking," he said before he busied himself with looking for a new target. "Uh ...

You could shoot at the weather vane. It's only just hanging onto life. See if you can knock it down?"

"I could cheat and use a splodey," she teased. "But … let's see if a regular old broadhead can do it." She looked at the weathervane for a moment, trying to judge where the weak point was before she decided to try and hit the rooster's head — hoping that the impact would lever it enough to make it break. She watched as it hit — and bent almost entirely flat backwards but didn't break off. Before Chance could make the suggestion, she pulled another one and hit it at the bend, and the weathervane clattered to the ground. "That didn't do what I wanted it to."

"Yeah, well, maybe you should yell at it. Give it better instructions," Chance teased.

"That only works on stupid big brothers with stupid haircuts," she told him.

"What do you do for the rest of us, then?" he asked with a smirk.

"Try to keep out of your way, mostly," she said as she folded the bow up.

"Oh." He tipped his head to the side as he watched her for a second. "You planning to keep your distance then? I mean, with everyone back ... I guess you want some private family time?"

She sighed and wrapped her arms around her middle in a gesture that all of the kids had come to be familiar with. "I dunno," she said with a little shrug. "Have to see what happens, I guess."

He shook his head quickly. "Well, if you ask _me_ , I think we should stick together. We're a pretty good team. And Charlie would probably like to pretend to be in charge more often," he tried to tease.

"She believes her own lies," Elin replied with a tiny smile.

"Well, we gotta keep you around to keep her honest," Chance said, smiling wider. "Besides, it would suck without you around," he added sincerely. "So let's try to keep the band together."

"You're really sweet, you know that?" she said as she kicked away from the fence.

"I try to be," he told her with a small smile. "Mom taught me right, I guess."

"The way the grownups tell it, you were just like that from day one," she countered. "And seeing as that's the story from Kate and Baby Kurt, I'm thinking that's the closest to true."

He turned a bit pink at that before he blurted out, "I'm sorry about before." His eyes were slightly wide, and he quickly tumbled into his explanation. "I didn't ask, and I wasn't thinking, and that wasn't very polite."

"You mean the kiss? But that was the best part," she replied quietly.

He stopped and stared at her for a second before a slow smile started. "You're not mad," he said, clearly relieved.

"Chance, if I was mad?" Elin replied with her hip cocked. "You would know."

"Not always," he replied, still smiling. "Sometimes you just ... ignore things. You're very complicated, you know that?"

"You overthink things," she said shaking her head.

"Genetics," he said with a sheepish laugh.

"Same. Apparently," she said, frowning a little to herself.

He tipped his head at her and watched the frown for a moment before he very quickly darted in to steal a slightly less shy kiss. "So… let's forget genetics and maybe I'll try not thinking?" he offered, still with that same sheepish smile.

She nodded and looked up at him for a moment, a little bit wide eyed.

He bounced back on his heels for a second and then let out a breath. "Right. I... " He seemed to run out of words though and grabbed her hand, squeezed it for a second, and took off back toward the church.

Elin stared after him for a moment before she bit her lip and started to pace outside, arms wrapped around herself and clearly overthinking everything.

She wasn't sure how long she had been out there, but at some point, the younger Kurt had made his way to where she was and watched her for a moment with his head tilted to the side. "I know that look," he said quietly.

She looked up at him with a totally open expression and stopped. "What?"

"I've seen it on both my best friend and his wife's faces," he said. "You really do look just like her — it makes it easier to read, sorry," he added with a little smirk.

"Okay …" she said slowly as she took a few steps toward him. "What … does it mean?"

"It means you're trying to talk yourself out of being happy," he said simply. "That's the look that means you're looking for reasons." He had perched on part of the rubble of a fallen building and was still watching her with his head tipped to the side. "So, what is it that you're overthinking?"

If Kurt was expecting to have to drag it out of her like he did the other two, then he was very likely shocked when she simply blurted it out. "Chance kissed me."

He didn't do a very good job of hiding his surprised and delighted smile, though he did quickly try to get it back under control. "When did this happen?"

She glanced around them and looked at the shadows of the buildings before she turned partway in a circle to orient herself a bit. "Um," she peeked up at him with her face scrunched up a bit. "About two ...and a half hours ago?"

"Ah." He was still smiling as he nodded. "That explains why he came back looking so… thoughtful."

"Oh," she said, seeming to settle down a bit at that. She nodded to herself and let out a breath as if that was all there was to know.

Kurt watched her reaction and had to chuckle. "He seemed to be planning — I've seen _that_ look on his father's face." He peered at her for a moment. "So, if you don't want him to kiss you again, likely you should tell him. Take my advice — it's easier to be straightforward rather than dance around it."

"No, he'll—" She took in a quick breath and shook her head. "He'll figure out he made a mistake."

He frowned at that. "And what mistake is that?"

She looked up at him as if he'd completely lost his mind. "The … the kissing."

"Then you didn't want him to kiss you?" he asked.

"No ... just... I can't … do anything like that with anyone."

"Nonsense," he said gruffly, shaking his head at her as he got up to close the gap between them so he could see her better. "If you're not ready, then tell him so, but nothing is _stopping_ you, _Kleine_."

"But he could get _hurt_ ," she said, looking highly strained. "Or worse."

"Yes, he could," Kurt agreed, letting out a sigh and shaking his head at her. She really was so much like her parents, and in this case, Kurt was sure that it wasn't helping her in the least.

"It would be my _fault._ "

" _Lacherlich_." He shook his head even harder and pulled her into a hug. "Do you intend to hurt him? Break his heart? Lead him into danger?"

"No!" she said, shaking her head hard.

"Then how can it be your fault?" he asked. He took a slight step back and held her out so that he could meet her gaze with his. "Is it our fault that the world is literally hell on earth right now? Or perhaps it's my fault that I was captured and my wife killed. I shouldn't have loved her then, is that what you're saying?"

She looked horrified as she shook her head 'no,' very near the point of tears.

He let out a little sigh and pulled her back to him, hugging her as tightly as he was able. "Our lives are dangerous, _Kleine_. That doesn't mean we stop living them," he whispered to her. "And it is never, _never_ your fault when the evil things happen. Do you understand that? You are not responsible for other people's evil deeds or for the fate of the world — or, for that matter, for one young man's heart." He tightened his grip on her. "You're responsible for your own happiness, and if you choose to share that with others, that is even better."

She curled into him a little bit deeper and started to cry quietly to herself, and Kurt pulled her that much tighter and gently whispered to her that it was alright.


	14. Be Happy

**Chapter 14: "Be Happy"**

When most everyone had cleared out after dinner, Kate still wanted to make herself useful, so she offered to help Annie clean up. She grabbed an old broom to sweep up after the half-demon twins had made a mess of the floor — not on purpose, entirely, since K kept them in line, but simply because they were still toddlers — and was deep in thought trying to … process. Replaying everything she'd learned from this timeline the way she would practice archery so that she was sure to have it memorized when she got back so they could stop it from happening.

She was so deep in thought that she hadn't realized Annie was there until Annie said, "You look like Tammy when she's trying to lift heavy objects with her mind."

Kate looked up with a small smile and let out a self-conscious laugh. "Sorry. Just ... lots on my mind. It's been a crazy past few days," she explained. "Though I guess it's been a crazy past few years for you guys, so… I can't really complain."

"Doesn't matter how good or bad it is; there's always someone with better — and worse," Annie replied as she started the water on the dishes. "Like it or not, we gotta just be happy for what we have. _All of us._ "

Kate looked up at Annie and let out a sigh. "You sound like Kurt," she said with a small smile.

"Which one?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, well ... mine, I guess," Kate said with a small shrug.

"That's what I thought," Annie said, shaking her head as she measured out the soap. "You gotta put a little distance on the other one before you break his heart all over again."

"That's not what I'm trying to do," Kate promised quickly. "I just want him to be okay."

"Honey, it doesn't matter if you're tryin' or not," Annie told her. "The only way he's gonna be okay is if he can do this with the people here in _this_ time."

"I know," Kate said as she let out a breath. "He's got all of you... he's got Krissy. She's _amazing_. He'll be okay ... I just… I just want to help him."

"Help him by lettin' him get that distance," she said. "He's got plenty to occupy his mind with everything going on here. Between trying to tie up the ends in that war and helping those kids …. and those little baby brothers of his..." She shook her head with a shiver. "And the mess that crazy woman made that has those men on their toes? He's got a lot to keep him busy without lettin' him get wrapped up in what could have been." She tipped her head at Kate for a second. "What is it that sweet moon beam — or whatever he's called today — says about livin' in the past?"

Kate couldn't help but laugh at that. "He's got you all trained pretty well," she whispered.

Annie waved her hand at that with a little scoff. "Hey, you listen to him jabber that over and over for all those years and you just finally have to accept it so he'll be quiet and move on to somethin' else. Not a thing wrong with reminiscin' — but that man is not reminiscin'."

"Well…" Kate let out a breath. "If I could just go home and let him be, I would. But Annie, that's _Kurt_ hurting like that. You can't tell me to ignore him."

"No, I'm not tellin' you that," Annie said softly. "If it was Scott, I'm sure I'd be doing the same thing right down the line. But ... if it was Scott, I'd know to get him over .. anything … he needs to keep his mind occupied. I don't think Kurt is much different in that right."

"No, he's always done better when he has someone he can help," she said with an affectionate smile.

"And what I'm sayin' is he's got plenty to help," Annie said. "Just don't volunteer to baby him like you been doin'."

"I just… he's so worn down," Kate sighed as she started to gather up a few more plates for Annie.

"And I am working on that," Annie said. "Don't you worry about that part."

Kate leaned against the wall with her arms crossed and bit her lip. "I hate seeing him like that, Annie. It breaks my heart, and I just… that's Kurt. And I know we're going back to stop it, but… even when I look at mine, I can see him and… I don't ever want to see him like that."

Annie let out a breath and dried her hands on the dish towel before she took Kate by the shoulders. "Honey, there is no way that you can take care of all of this mess with him on your own — unless you go fix it before it can happen. But even then," she let out a sigh. "Even then, age is gonna catch up to him sooner or later." She pulled her into a hug and squeezed her tightly.

Kate let out a little hitched breath and rested her head on Annie's shoulders as she let out several days' worth of upset tears she'd been hiding trying to take care of everyone else.

* * *

After dinner, Tammy had disappeared with Gerry and Zoe — she had always been good at helping the kids at the school to hone their powers, and Zoe wanted some tips. So Tyler found himself milling for the moment, checking in on how everyone else was doing. Krissy and Sying were arguing about something, calling each other cheaters, so probably a race; most of the couples were curled up with each other; and Charlie was looking at her brother like he was an idiot, so situation normal all around.

When he did find the elder Nightcrawler, Kurt was up above their little hidey hole in one of the pews of the church, clearly deep in thought and memory. He looked tired and older than Tyler was used to seeing him, and Tyler quietly sat down next to him and bowed his head in silence, offering his own prayers as he waited for Kurt, not wanting to interrupt him.

When Kurt finally looked up, Tyler tipped his head. "I'm not going to lie," he said. "It's good to see you up here. For a while there, I was afraid you'd just… given up on faith."

"If that had been the case, there would have been no need to take me from that tower," Kurt replied quietly.

Tyler nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I'm glad that's not the case, then," he said with a small smile. "Don't know what half of us would do around here if we didn't have our pillar of faith around to keep us on track and remind us what's important."

"I think that's an overstatement," Kurt replied with a little chuckle.

"I think you underestimate yourself," Tyler said, smiling a bit wider. "I know you've been there when I needed you."

"Another one throwing my own words in my face," he said, shaking his head.

"It's because we listened to you," Tyler pointed out. He paused and watched Kurt for a moment. "You know… there's a temple a few miles south of here that wasn't destroyed in all this. Sometime, you and I should go sit out on the grounds. It's the closest to heaven I can think of."

"I think I would like that," Kurt said softly.

"It always helps me find a little peace going there," Tyler admitted. "I used to go early mornings when I was at NYU and having a hard time. Dumb student stuff. But the bigger stuff too." He looked Kurt over for a long time. "It's supposed to remind us of heaven and to bring us closer to the ones on the other side."

Kurt tipped his head to listen as Tyler continued, watching him carefully as he seemed to get into a good rhythm, the manner in which he was speaking slowly becoming more even and peaceful. "You know," Tyler said, "when Tammy and I got married, the sealer told us to look in the mirrors and see ourselves for eternity. They're set up so you can see yourself going on endlessly in both directions no matter which way you turn — so there's the people who came before you and the ones that come after," he said, still in that same even tone. "You've got Krissy, and you have a great family here, but you're looking in just the one mirror. You're so focused on right now you're forgetting there's a whole other side just waiting for you for eternity."

Kurt smiled softly at the young man and nodded his head. "You have always been a very wise young man," Kurt told him in a gentle tone.

"I had a lot of people who helped me get that way," Tyler said. "Mom and Dad, you and Logan, and everyone at the school. Kate too." He tipped his head at Kurt. "Sometimes I get the feeling she's still watching out for us — and yelling at us when we're stupid."

"I think she left K in charge of that," Kurt said with a little chuckle.

"Maybe," Tyler said, laughing quietly. "But I think she's also just waiting for us all to get ourselves back on track so we can come back to her. And I think she'd be mad if we came early — if it's just getting old or giving up or whatever else… I don't know if you can hit people in heaven, but she'd sure try."

"You can and she would," Kurt said with a nod. "Repeatedly."

"Then try not to give her a reason, huh?" Tyler said, shaking his head at Kurt before he let out a long breath. "Look… I know ... I can't imagine what you've been through. I really can't. But maybe I can help," he offered. He reached into a pocket for a little vial of oil. "If you like, I can give you a blessing. Might help. It can only bring you closer to heaven, right?"

"It certainly can't hurt," Kurt agreed.

Tyler took a deep breath and nodded before he pronounced the blessing of healing and comfort and placed his hands on Kurt's head to seal it with a prayer that was more of a reminder to Kurt that heaven was closer than he was giving it credit for and that he was on the right path, if he would just keep his feet.

When he was finished, Tyler put the cap back on the vial and sat back down on the pew. "If you need a little privacy, I can keep people out."

"I think I'd prefer the company if they choose to join me," Kurt replied with a little smile. "And thank you, Tyler."

Tyler just nodded. "Just… trying to do what I'm supposed to be ordained to do."

"Which is just how you've always been anyhow," Kurt said with a proud smile.

"You too," Tyler replied, matching his smile.

* * *

When Elin and the younger Kurt returned to the church, it was late enough that most people were off doing their own thing. Tyler and the elder Nightcrawler were talking quietly in the front pews, so Elin and Kurt slipped down to where the others were as softly as possible, very nearly running into Krissy on the way in when she teleported in front of them with an imperious look that died when she realized they weren't who she thought they were.

"Oh .. sorry. Thought you were Sying. He's being stupid," she explained.

"What did he do now?" Elin asked, though her tone was quieter than usual.

"He just — he's such a _cheater_ ," Krissy sighed with annoyance.

"That literally tells me less than nothing," Elin replied as she glanced at Kurt.

Krissy waved her hand. "It doesn't matter. If you see him, tell him to stop hiding from me and face me like a bug boy."

"He might do just that if you quit threatening him," Kurt suggested.

Krissy gave him a look for a second. "He's been doing this since we were kids," she explained. "He _lets_ me win!"

"I know, since you were babies," he said with a nod. "He thinks he's helping."

"Which is _stupid_ ," Krissy said, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Is it?" Kurt asked, his eyebrows raised a bit.

" _Yes_." Krissy looked all the more stubborn about it. "How am I supposed to win fair and square if he throws the race?"

"Don't run it," Kurt suggested.

"Oh, I always 'port," she said, waving her hand.

"That's not what I mean," Kurt said. "I mean don't try to compete with him if he irritates you. That will get his attention more — if you just refuse to play."

"I don't _want_ his…" She gaped at him for a second and turned a deeper purple. " _Papa_!"

Kurt grinned widely. "It's been the same for years, it seems."

"Yeah, because he's _stupid_ , not because… Seriously, that's just… no."

"Your mother gets flustered in exactly the same way," Kurt said with a laugh. "But I won't push you anywhere near that rotten insect."

"Oh my gosh. Do _not_ tell my papa about _any_ of this," she instructed him, leveling a finger at him.

"But he needs to know that Cockroach Jr. is interested in his little princess."

"Hey, don't call him that," Krissy said, pulling herself up to her full height and jutting her chin out. "He's only, like, one quarter cockroach anyway." She seemed to catch herself as she added, "And he's _not interested_."

"You're as bad as this one," Kurt said, tipping his head toward Elin. "It was the same with your mother and K. It was horrible."

Krissy raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms to look toward Elin. "So who's he trying to set _you_ up with?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter," Elin said with a wave.

"Well if it's anyone but Chance, you know Charlie will beat them up, right?" Krissy teased.

"It's none of her business either way," Elin half growled with a bit of blush to her cheeks.

"You say that like she doesn't try to poke her nose in all the time anyway," Krissy laughed as she draped an arm around her best friend's shoulders. "Come on. If it's someone you don't like, I am in the mood to hit someone, since Sying's not around."

"If it was someone she didn't like, they'd be bleeding by now," Kurt called out behind them with a little smirk. "And I'm not trying to set either of you up."

"Whatever you say, Papa," Krissy called back to him, rolling her eyes a bit as she steered Elin down the halls V though if Elin had been counting on Krissy to help her avoid any more trouble, she was sadly mistaken. Krissy hadn't actually meant for them to run into Chance, but as soon as it happened, she gave her best friend an impish grin and simply vanished in a puff of purple smoke before Elin could do anything about it.

"Did I scare her off?" Chance asked with a quiet smirk.

"Something did," Elin replied as she took in a deep breath and looked up at him.

"So…" Chance rubbed the back of his neck. "I was thinking. And I know you said to not do that, but… I was thinking maybe we could do something? Like a walk or maybe like Natasha and Clint do where they kill things and call it a date? If that's okay?"

"Are you asking me for a walk or a date?" she asked, tipping her head to the side. "Or a kill things tour of the block?"

"Any of those things," he said.

She bit her lip and thought about it for a moment. "Okay, but which one do you _want_?"

"Well." He hedged. "I'd like to take you out on a date, but with the hellscape outside, I was having a hard time coming up with ideas that weren't… killing things? Or ... that wouldn't end up with us killing things anyway."

"If it wasn't hell out there, what would we do?" she asked, deciding to see where his head was at.

"Oh, well, that's easy," he said, clearly having thought it over already. "We'd go riding. We haven't done that in years, and I know you like that. And then maybe grab a bite to eat when we were done."

She walked over to take a seat on the couch and watched him. "Is that all?"

"Well, at some point, maybe I'd kiss you," he said, turning very pink for a moment. "Probably at the end of the night."

She gave him a little smirk as an idea hit her. "Well. How about you just … write it down, and when we get rid of all the hellfire and damnation, we'll start going down the list with everything we can't do right now."

He broke into a wide grin at that. "That… is actually a really good idea," he said brightly as he dropped down onto the couch next to her.

"And in the meantime, if you can come up with non-killing things to do for your list — we can do those instead."

"You mean it?" His grin looked like it was threatening to split his face. "I mean — yes. Alright. Good. I'll … I'll make a second list."

"What's on the first list?" she asked with a frown.

"You know. All the things we can't do right now. The second one is for the ones we _can_ ," he explained quickly. "Like ... we could always take a tour of the city. Or see if we can jumpstart one of the old cars around here and go for a drive. Or have a shooting contest. Or maybe just go somewhere and watch the sunrise or…" He trailed off as he seemed to realize he was revealing how much he'd thought about this. "Or. You know. I'll think about it."

She nodded her head and leaned forward to give him a kiss. "Or, we can start small."

"Okay," he said, still grinning madly before he leaned into her to kiss her back.

* * *

Kurt watched Krissy and Elin go off together with a little smirk, leaned against the wall with his arms crossed as he couldn't help but think of just how much like their mothers they both were.

"You're in a good mood," Kate called out to him as she rounded the corner.

"I've just been practicing my favorite past time," Kurt said with a grin.

"Oh? I didn't know there were pirates here," she teased him.

"Ah, of course, I should have specified. Non-fighting favorite fit-for-most-audiences past time," Kurt said, with one eye closed as he tried to be far more specific.

She laughed as she thought it over. "Okay then… who's getting married?" she teased.

He burst out laughing as he swept her in a circle and kissed her. "I haven't been here quite long enough to start performing ceremonies," he said with a grin.

"You never know. Sometimes people just grab you and run off to get married." She coughed out a word that sounded like "Natasha."

"That was one time," he said, still grinning. "Who would I be marrying off, do you suppose?"

"Oh, good point," Kate said, nodding thoughtfully. "Everyone here is either already married or too young."

"Yes, It certainly narrows down my possibilities," he agreed.

She laughed at that and kissed him. "Alright, I give up. What have you been up to?"

"I've spent a fair amount of time with my goddaughter," he said, "trying to cheer her up after a poor, well-meaning boy stole a kiss."

Kate beamed at that. "Oh, that's adorable. Which one was it? Tell me it was Chance."

"Naturally," Kurt said with a nod. "Of course, she was convinced he'd made a mistake."

"What was his mistake? Only kissing her once?" Kate laughed.

"You know, that may have been it," he conceded. "She was doing as her parents have done so often and trying to take responsibility for everything around them. Talking herself out of taking a chance … well. With Chance." He grinned a bit at that.

Kate giggled. "You've been spending too much time with Hawkeyes. I think we're having a bad influence on you," she teased him. She stood on her toes to steal another kiss as she added, "I hope you set her straight."

"I did. Of course, I misjudged and handled her a bit as I would have her parents." He shook his head looking a bit sheepish. "I made her cry."

"Oh, _mein schatz_ ," She very gently kissed him again. "Is she alright now?"

"Yes, of course," he said with a bit of a self-deprecating laugh. "I fixed it. We talked a bit more. She's just … so delicate."

"Well, she's only, what, fifteen?" Kate smiled softly at him, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "And she's seen a lot."

"And that was the whole heart of the trouble, of course."

"That's the heart of the trouble for just about everyone around here," she pointed out with a sigh as she hugged him a bit tighter. "Annie made sure to remind me we can't fix all of it, no matter _how_ long we're here."

"Yes, I know," he agreed, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her closer to kiss the top of her head.

She sighed and snuggled into him a bit. "You know I love you, right?"

"And I you," he agreed with a smile.

"No matter what happens," she added. "And you _know_ things will happen. Maybe not this crap, but stuff happens, and I just… don't want you to think I'd ever love you any less or — or that I'd take back a second of it."

"That's what the vows were for," he said, still nodding.

"Well, I _meant_ them," she said decisively.

"So did I," he said. "And it appears all of our friends have managed to keep it together too."

"Well, they chose well," Kate said with a little smirk. "Even if it did take some of them longer than others." She was well and truly curled into him when they heard the footsteps echoing on the stone steps that meant someone was coming back down from the church above them, and when they looked up, the elder Nightcrawler was watching the two of them with a soft smile.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to interrupt," he said.

"Our fault," Kate said, waving a hand. "Making out in the hallway like a couple teenagers. Shameful."

"That never stopped you before," he replied with a little laugh as he looked between the two of them. "And you two had better get used to a little less privacy — the mansion really was full."

"Yes, good. Good advice," Kate nodded a few times over as she leaned into her Kurt's chest at the suggestion.

The elder Nightcrawler smirked the slightest bit as he moved to pass them, though he paused and shot a small smile at his younger self. "Take good care of her," he said low, and Kurt nodded and held Kate that much closer.

But before the graying Nightcrawler could turn the corner, Krissy appeared in a plume of purple, her lips pressed together in slight confusion. "There's a strange guy outside asking for you two," she told Kate and Kurt.

"By name?" the younger Kurt asked with a frown. "How?"

Krissy shrugged. "I don't know — I've never seen him before. But he is, like, mostly naked."

The two Nightcrawlers shared a look, and at the same moment, they both breathed out "Gateway."

Krissy's eyebrows shot up as the realization hit. "That's the guy that brought you both here, right?" She looked a bit disappointed, her tail switching behind her.

"One and the same," the younger Kurt replied with a gentle nod.

"Then I guess that's our cue to leave," Kate said. She paused and bit her lip as she looked over her grown daughter and the older Nightcrawler before she detached from her Kurt for a moment and rushed to wrap Krissy up in a quick, warm hug. When she set Krissy back down, she slipped over to give the elder Nightcrawler a quick kiss on the cheek as well. "Be _happy_ ," she told him, trying for a stern tone that ended up being warm instead. She wanted to say more, to tell him to take care of Krissy and Elin and Logan and K… But she spun on her heel and ran over to her Kurt to grab his hand instead so she didn't end up making a mess of a goodbye.

When the two time travelers stepped out of the church, Gateway was already at work, his bolo swinging over his head as the winds whipped up around them.

All the debris in the street was pushed to the sides and the winds kept getting stronger and stronger until little streaks of light were visible in the wall of wind. With that, Gateway just gave them both a little smile before they were lifted off of their feet, and dozens of demons were sucked right out of the buildings that they had been occupying, their claws scratching the stone and brick as they tried to stay in. But like everyone else — they had no way to fight the time stream when Gateway opened it up.

The light and wind was horrible, but Kate and Kurt managed to keep a solid grip on each other, wrapped up together, their arms around each other and his tail around her waist until they were rather unceremoniously dumped in the middle of the Australian Outback with no visible markers as to when they were.


	15. Your Future Self is Stupid

**Well, here we are at the end of the volume! The next volume won't have so much time travel in it, we promise ;) But with a title like "Face Your Demons. No Really," we can't promise it won't be intense! Go check out CC's profile pretty soon here for that one to go up. :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 15: "Your Future Self is Stupid"**

* * *

Once they landed in Australia again, Kate didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to unwrap herself around Kurt as she hardly picked up her head. "Please tell me we're home. I'm done with time travel now, thanks," she whispered in his ear.

"But you wanted to try it so badly," he teased.

She pulled back the slightest bit so he could see the _look_ she was giving him. "I take it back," she said.

He leaned toward her to steal a kiss. "No take backs, I'm afraid," he said.

"Well, that's just rude," she replied before she kissed him right back, and for far longer.

"If this is what you two have been up to this whole time I have been looking for you…" said a voice behind them, and both of them looked up to see that Laura, along with Jubilee and Noh, were making their way over — Laura with an entirely unamused look on her face. She thumbed over her shoulder. "At least these two had an excuse while the two of you appear to have simply been looking for a new place to fornicate."

"Hey, first of all, no. We just got back from horrible, terrible time travel, which was _awful._ And second of all—" Kate leveled her finger at Laura. "—don't be hateful."

"I am simply calling it as I see it," she replied, though she certainly looked irritated.

"And where did Gateway see fit to send you?" Noh asked curiously, his arm around Jubilee as the two of them seemed to be as attached as Kate and Kurt were — which was probably fueling some of Laura's frustration, honestly.

In fact, Laura looked almost lonely as she had her arms crossed over her chest and a definite pout on her face. There was no sign anywhere of the time-displaced X-Men — or Old Logan, for that matter.

"Well, it was literally hell on earth," Kate said, and when Noh raised an eyebrow, she insisted, "Literally."

"Ah, then we had similar experiences," Noh said, pulling Jubilee a little tighter.

"Oh?" Kurt asked. "What … or when …" He was clearly thinking that they had gone to the same outcome, just a different spot.

"About… maybe… ten years ahead?" Jubilee said. "Where were you? We so could have used some extra Wagners for backup."

"A little further ahead than that," Kurt replied. "Fourteen years to be ...well, somewhat exact."

Jubilee pushed out her lips in a bit of a frown as she thought it over. "So _you_ weren't dealing with the crazy SHIELD dictator then?"

"No, we were dealing with the crazy demon ruling all heaven, hell, and earth," Kurt said frankly.

Jubilee winced visibly and shook her head. "Ouch."

"We can compare notes once we get out of the desert," Kate suggested.

"Afraid that Gateway may send us elsewhen?" Kurt teased.

"Yes! Yes, I am!" she said, completely seriously.

"Even if it's to show us what a beautiful job we do correcting things?" Kurt challenged.

She paused. "Okay. _That_ doesn't sound too horrible," she admitted, though she whispered, "But I don't trust time travel."

"Don't hold your breath on Gateway doing _that_ ," Jubilee said, blowing her bangs out of her face. "He only shows awful stuff."

"Then yeah, let's get _out_ of here," Kate decided.

* * *

Although Jubilee and Noh insisted that they wanted to check on something first before they got home, they dropped off Kate and Kurt on the way, and the first thing they did when they got to the mansion was find Krissy — who was playing with the other kids as they were all ganging up on Logan. They weren't surprised to see that Charlie was leading the little group as they likely thought they were being sneaky, edging around the couch before they pounced on Logan with war cries and giggles. He was keeping as serious of a face as he was able while he picked them off, tickling them mercilessly as he got a hold of them — which was likely why Charlie was leading the charge.

Kate and Kurt were both grinning wide as they watched the scene — though it was a little strange to see the kids so little again after the past few days, even if they really hadn't changed in the slightest.

Logan looked up at them as he pulled both Chance and Krissy closer to work them over. "Thought you two were headed out for a few days," he said as Chance squirmed almost violently to get away from the tickling.

"We were," Kurt said, though as soon as he'd said it, he had teleported into the middle of the pile of kids to snatch Elin up as she was making an escape so that she could be properly tickled as well.

Kate found a spot on the couch next to K, who was enjoying the show, and snuggled right into her. "We missed you guys," she said.

"You've been gone for a few hours," K said with a laugh. "Can't have missed us that badly."

"You have no idea," Kate said, just snuggling K even deeper. "We were gone for _days_ , K. There was time travel. Gateway. Awful things. And you were an idiot."

She set her mug down and wrapped Kate up in a hug. "I'm sure you're overstating things," she said.

"No, no. You really were an idiot," Kate insisted, hugging her tighter still.

"Yeah? How idiotic could I have possibly been?" K asked with a little frown. "Because that doesn't sound right at all."

Kate sighed and snuggled her. "Just… if there is ever a future where Kurt's dad runs things, do _not_ be self-sacrificing and stupid. Okay? Just don't."

"Gonna have to be more specific. I mean. Self-sacrificing is kinda part of the job description."

"Don't trade yourself for me, okay?" Kate glared at her hard. "Just don't."

"Wait, what?" She looked a bit horrified at the suggestion.

"See? Even you think your future self was stupid. Case closed." Kate hugged her again. "Don't worry — we're going to make sure it never happens. I just wanted to tell you you're an idiot."

"Did … it work?" she asked. "At least tell me it worked. To do … whatever."

"That is _so_ not the point but… yeah. Yeah, we got to kill the demon king. But it was _still stupid_."

"Yeah. That's … no. That's not gonna happen."

"Good." Kate picked her head up to kiss K's cheek for a second before she snuggled right back in.

K gave her a little squeeze and was quiet for a moment. "Was Logan dead in this scenario?"

Kate shook her head 'no.'

She looked at her for a moment. "Yeah. No. Just … no."

"You know you're gonna need to tell me more about that, right?" Logan said as he looked over his shoulder.

Kurt looked up from where he had managed to snag Krissy as well and was trying to keep both girls trapped as he tickled them with his tail — until Krissy grabbed the tip of his tail and told him "NO" to make him stop so she could snuggle her best friend. "We went down to Australia to address the problem Noh found — but Gateway had another problem in mind for us to fix," he explained, sounding a bit tired. "The long and short of it is that my father took over heaven and earth, and it was a _very_ unpleasant future."

"Would have had to have been," K said as Kate gave her another squeeze. "The girl. Is traumatized."

"It sucked," Kate told her firmly. "And _your son_ ," she added Logan's way, "did not make it any better. Daken can be _detailed_ when he wants to be."

"News to me," he said. "I usually only get the bare bones."

"Well, you told him to catch me up on what had happened."

"So it takes the end of the world for that boy to pull his head out?" K surmised with a teasing smile Logan's way. "Look at the expression of not-surprised-in-the-least." He gave her a little smirk and pulled Charlie closer, since she looked 'too serious' and clearly was in need of more tickles.

"Oh, but Logan," Kate said, finally picking her head up off of K's shoulder. "Your _daughter_ was running the resistance. Elin was _amazing_."

"Why were teenagers running the resistance?" he asked as the twins slipped loose and took off running into the next room over.

"Oh, well." Kate set her head back down on K's shoulder. "Jubes and Noh were there, and so was America, but Elin was the one calling the shots."

"The teenagers were the ones to help rescue our future selves, actually," Kurt said softly, though he had a bit of a proud smile as he kissed the top of Krissy's head. "Krissy is excellent with the dual wield, and Elin is a trick shot with a bow."

"If they rescued us … why...?" K started to ask but shook her head. "No. I don't know if I want to imagine the scenario she's talking about."

"Likely not," Kurt agreed. "Let's just say we were able to get rid of my father — and we're back to make sure it does _not_ happen here anyway, so you won't need to worry about it."

"Is that a promise, sweet, wild blueberry?" K asked with a teasing little smile.

"It is," he said with a nod. "Believe me — we're not letting him get anywhere near any kind of power. He can be king of that little island in the Caribbean for the rest of eternity."

"You sure Strange and 'yana can't do something about him?" Logan asked. "Bind him more ... something?"

"Or … maybe Thor might have some access to something," K suggested. "I can bribe him with something he'd appreciate. Maybe a bear leg with the hair burnt off. Tell him it's cajun style."

"I'm sure there are plenty of possibilities to deal with him," Kurt said, nodding quietly. "But, Logan, I think I'll have to ask you to deal with my mother," he added, though his expression was almost teasing as he tried to make it sound like it was an imposition.

Logan frowned a bit and sat back on his heels. "It's her fault?" he asked quietly.

Kurt paused. "Surprisingly, not really," he said. "Apparently, she acted under orders from Azazel — and you know she wouldn't do that unless she had no choice in the matter. Noh mentioned blood magic, but since there weren't any magic users there at the time, I'm not sure how long Mystique was under his control."

Logan looked thoughtful for a moment before he let out a little breath. "I'm not going to say no," Logan said. "But I think it'd weigh easier on _your_ conscience if we can just break it."

"Yes, that would be better," Kurt agreed, though there was a bit of fire in his eyes. "Though since it was my daughter she kidnapped for Azazel, I wouldn't say no to simply locking her up in the deepest pit for the rest of her life."

"Ooh, I'll take a shot at her," K said with a grin. "I have _ideas_ for her." She looked up at Kurt with a wide, innocent expression. "I'll make it fast. I promise."

"And we'll need to come up with a way to keep Krissy safe when she's old enough to start teleporting," Kurt said, breezing past her suggestion, though he did raise an eyebrow at her for a moment. "He can't be allowed to take advantage of her while she's still learning to control it."

"If he comes within ten miles of her, I'll make sure he regrets his every life decision," Kate grumbled into K's shoulder, still snuggling her friend, though Sying seemed to realize she was upset and had pulled himself onto the couch to crawl into her lap and try to work his way into the snuggle as well.

"I'd like to help in that area too," K said. "I'm getting ideas on how to make him suffer with no real danger to his well being. Which is a hard balance."

"Good." Kate said with a decisive nod. "We've got a decade to turn making him hurt into a science."

"I was planning on a lot sooner than that," she admitted.

"Right, but we'll have time to perfect it," Kate said quickly. "No going after him when you've got your little boy… No doing that."

"Reasonably sure Logan has that wrapped up, seeing as he's not really letting me out of his sight so far."

"We'll just have to take extra precautions," Kurt said. "Find Mystique, figure out if she's already under Azazel's influence, and go from there." He looked over the other three adults in the room before he let out a small sigh. "But for now, I'd just like to play with my little girls."

* * *

For a long while after they'd returned, Kate and Kurt seemed content just to curl up with their friends and family — but especially with Krissy.

All three members of the Wagner clan were curled up together on the swing in Ororo's garden. They'd had a long game of hide and seek with the bamfs, but little Krissy was well and truly tuckered out, and Kate pulled her into her lap to slowly swing back and forth as the little girl drifted off, while Kurt was curled around both of his princesses, his tail around Kate's ankle and one hand resting on Krissy's back. They were both content just to watch the rise and fall of her little chest and to listen to the tiny, squeaking sounds of slight snores. Now that they were getting into September, she'd come down with a bit of a fall cold, and she couldn't sleep at all without snoring.

Neither Kate nor Kurt said anything as they sat out in the early fall air — until their lazy afternoon was interrupted when they spotted Clint's car pulling up to the mansion.

"Wonder what they're up to," Kate whispered, though almost as soon as she'd said it, Kurt had teleported them over to greet Clint and Natasha as they got out of the car.

Clint zipped around to the other side of the car and looked like he might try to do something like help Natasha out, but when she gave him a look, he quickly shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to see Kate and Kurt. "Aren't you two supposed to be in Australia?" he asked. "Gerry was hoping we could have Krissy over sometime while you were out."

"Australia was awful," Kate said, shaking her head at him. "It's nice to be home instead."

Clint raised an eyebrow at that but shrugged as he grabbed Natasha by the hand as they headed inside. "Well, Nat, what do you think? Since they're here, can they come see Hank with us?" he asked casually.

"Is there some special reason you need company?" Kurt asked. "Or is this a more important check-up?"

"We're going to _try_ to see what we're having," Natasha said with one eyebrow quirked.

"Try being the operative word," Clint added.

"You sound like you don't think the little one will be cooperative," he said.

Clint grinned and held up three fingers. "This'll be the third try," he admitted. "Not even born and already perfect at sneaking and espionage."

"So you're hoping for a new good luck charm to out sneak your little spy?"

"Something like that," Natasha said with a smirk that turned into a smile when she saw Krissy starting to stir awake in Kate's arms.

"What are you hoping for," Kurt asked, barely repressing the grin.

"I don't care, as long as they're healthy," Clint said, his grin very wide as, at the exact same time, Natasha replied without hesitating, "Little girl."

"Then I hope you both get what you'd like," Kurt replied. "But as I've had to learn from Logan — it's smart money to always bet on Natasha."

Natasha smirked at Clint as she grabbed him by the arm to pull him along. "Then let's go prove me right," she said as they headed down to Hank's lab.

"You know, if she — or he—" Kate corrected herself quickly. "—keeps hiding, you could always ask Tyler. He can tell without the equipment. But it _is_ more fun to see for yourself."

"We'll keep that in mind," Clint told her, still looking like he was pretty much floating as they arrived in the medical wing.

It looked like Hank had been expecting them as he waved them over with a wide smile — and he already had everything set up for them.

"Last chance to place your bets," Clint said, and Natasha reached over to push him in the shoulder with a little look. He broke into a small laugh before Hank instructed her to hold off on assaulting her husband until _after_ he was done.

"I'm with Kurt," Kate said with a little smirk at her own husband. "Always bet on Natasha."

"Logan had his pick before she said what she wanted," Clint said. "Not that he's disagreeing with her. Of course."

"He'll have them all trained to take you down by age five," Kate teased.

"It's entirely true," Natasha agreed, looking almost serious.

But the group of them fell quiet as Hank set Natasha up — though Kate and Kurt were sharing a look between them, their hands clasped together where the other two couldn't see, since they already knew where this was going.

Finally, Hank looked up at Natasha with a little smirk. "Well then," he said. "It looks like we're all in agreement — you are always right, my dear," he teased her. "Your daughter seems to be perfectly healthy."

Kurt didn't need to be prompted to take a slight step forward and put a steadying hand on Clint's back. The archer looked like he might just fall over, though he was grinning broadly, and Natasha looked supremely satisfied as she reached over to pull Clint down to sit next to her with a little whispered, "Come here, you."

"Proof that Clint always makes sure Natasha gets what she wants," Kurt teased quietly to Kate.

"The story of their lives," she whispered back to him as she kissed his cheek and Krissy finally looked awake enough to start to be interested in what was going on.

"Wha hap'nin?" she asked sleepily.

"We just found out that you're going to have a little girl cousin," Kurt told her quietly before he kissed her temple. "Isn't that lovely for Aunt Nat and Uncle Clint?"

Krissy's tail switched behind her as she thought it over, only twitching even faster as she got more excited about it. She leaned over to look at Natasha, her eyes wide and curious. "Where?" Krissy asked, looking around like she was already excited to meet the new baby girl.

"She's not here yet," Kate explained. "She's still in Natasha's tummy, like K's little boy."

Krissy thought it over before she nodded and tried to wriggle out of Kate's grasp to go play with the bamfs, since there was no little girl for her to play with there yet.

"Do you have any names picked out?" Kurt asked. "Purely out of curiosity. Since you did want a girl."

"Oh yeah — we picked it out ages ago," Clint said as he finally seemed to find his voice. He nodded a few more times than was necessary. "We decided if it was a girl, we'd want to call her Zoe."

"I'm sure it will fit her perfectly," Kurt grinned.

"I'd ask for hand-me-downs, but all yours have tail holes," Clint teased.

"I'm sure K would be more than happy to give you Elin's things," Kurt suggested. "Half of it was never worn, I don't think."

"We'll ask her, thank you," Natasha said with a content smile as she slid around Clint so she could sit up better, kiss his cheek, and then jump to her feet. "You're just dying to tell everyone, aren't you?" she asked him with a twinkle in her eyes.

He nodded and grinned.

She took her hand in his. "Alright. Let's find Logan first. Do you think you can wait that long?" she teased.

He paused and bounced slightly on the balls of his feet. "I'd…. better come with you," he said as he grabbed her by the hand. "Not because I can't stop myself. But because I should go with — no, who am I kidding. I want to find the nearest megaphone and tell the whole _school_ right now," he said, interrupting himself halfway through as he seemed to get more excited.

She laughed at the pure excitement in his eyes, then laughed even harder when one of the bamfs teleported right in front of Clint and smacked a hand over his mouth as a few others grabbed hold of the two of them to teleport them out to the barn, where Logan and K were feeding the horses.

"Well, that was wonderful to be a part of," Kurt said, still grinning as the three of them headed out of Hank's lab and toward the elevators.

Kate nodded her agreement as Krissy skipped along ahead of them. "I'm almost sad the surprise was spoiled, though," she mused.

"You know the betting pool was going for weeks," he laughed. "And we didn't have time to cheat with this one. Though I didn't catch the name of the boy they're having. Perhaps we could start one for that?"

"Ooh, yes, good idea," she agreed, threading her arm through his.

"You know what it is, don't you," he asked with one eyebrow raised.

She smirked at him for a moment. "I may or may not have had some lovely mother-daughter chats with Krissy," she said airily. "And I may or may not have insider information."

He looked her over appraisingly, his eyes narrowed the slightest. "No you don't," he decided.

She grinned at him. "Oh, I didn't tell you anything about what _kind_ of insider information I had," she teased him. She pulled on his arm to turn him her way as she grinned impishly.

"Are you referencing the little kids that were with Scott?" he asked, his eyes on Krissy as they walked.

She grinned even wider. "And for a price, I might even be persuaded to tell you a little something about another teeny tiny elf." She stopped for a moment and let her gaze rake over him. "But you know, I _am_ a savvy businesswoman. I drive a hard bargain."

"As long as you didn't learn any bargaining tips from K while we were gone," he teased.

"Oh no," she said, shaking her head with that same impish grin. "I have a totally different negotiating style."

"Well then we should find somewhere secluded and open up negotiations," he replied with a wide grin.


End file.
